When I watch David Bowie and Annie Lennox’s gloriously theatrical and unforgettable performance of “Under Pressure” at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, I am instantly transported to 1992. The memorable concert, a fitting memorial to the legendary lead singer of Queen who had died from AIDS the year before, took place at London’s Wembley Stadium and included performances by everyone from Elton John to Liza Minnelli (a wobbly but spirited rendition of “We Are The Champions”). This mesmerizing duet, originally recorded by Bowie and Queen, stands out as my favorite moment of that show and one of my all-time favorite live duet performances. In addition to sounding great together, Bowie and Lennox’s chemistry was so dynamic. It’s obvious they had tremendous regard for each other.
If you haven’t seen this footage in a long time or have never seen it, it’s more than worth a visit—for the performance itself and the chance to travel back to 1992. First, here are Annie and Bowie in rehearsal earlier that day. Fascinating to see the metamorphosis of a performance.
Bowie and Lennox in rehearsal:
Here is the final performance with the magic added:
Jeff
March 5, 2013 at 8:02 pmIt wasn’t at Live Aid (1985)- it was at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Freddie_Mercury_Tribute_Concert
David Munk
March 5, 2013 at 9:09 pmHi Jeff! Ouch – mistakes are embarrassing, although in this case I have to say I am a bit relieved. When I was writing the piece I did research the Live Aid line up on Wiki and did note this performance wasn’t there. I attributed that to a mistake on the entry, completely forgetting about Freddie Mercury concert. One of the challenges about writing a blog solo is that it is sometimes really hard to avoid making the occasional error (be it grammatical or factual). I rely on my readers to keep me in line! Mea culpa. I hope you’ll keep reading. David
Krystal
August 22, 2014 at 5:49 amGives me goosebumps this video 🙂
David Munk
August 22, 2014 at 8:48 pmMe too! Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I love hearing from Stargayzing’s readers.