Queen and Adam Lambert performed a rare version of the Led Zeppelin classic, “Whole Lotta Love”, during a February 10 concert in Dunedin, NZ.
The show at the Forsyth Barr Stadium delivered, as Rolling Stone notes, the only non-Queen song the band has performed during the current Rhapsody tour; they previously played it just once – at a 2015 event at the O2 Arena in Prague.
The iconic track did play a key role in the history of Queen’s partnership with Lambert: it was the song he was singing during a 2009 episode of American Idol when keyboardist Spike Edney first came across him while watching TV with his wife.
“I went in to refill my martini and I just caught the last minute of him singing ‘Whole Lotta Love,'” Edney told Rolling Stone last year. “When he got to the very end I thought, ‘Here we go. Here’s where it counts.’ He sang the final cadence and just flew through it. It was effortless. I thought, ‘Wow. That takes some singing chops to be able to sing it with that kind of confidence.’ Then I Googled him and the first thing I saw was him singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” a cappella at his audition. I sent off an e-mail [to Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor] saying, ‘I found a live one.'”
Currently playing dates down under, the Dunedin show was the third and final performance in New Zealand, with Queen and Lambert set to open an Australian tour in Brisbane on February 13; they’ll headline Fire Fight Australia, a benefit concert in Sydney, AU, on February 16.
The band will begin an extensive European and UK trek in Bologna, Italy in late May.
See also:
Queen and Adam Lambert add final dates to UK Rhapsody tour
Queen honored with UK coin from The Royal Mint
Queen and Alice Cooper to perform at Fire Fight Australia benefit concert
Queen announce fan-voted Greatest Hits In Japan collection
Search Queen at hennemusic
