Queen Move UK & European Tour to 2022 and New Shows
Queen and Adam Lambert have postponed their UK & European Rhapsody tour and added new dates. Following a sensational run across Asia and Oceania last winter, the band was set to head out on the huge UK and European tour last summer, but the outing was rescheduled to May – July 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Now the dates have been pushed to 2022 kicking off with two shows at the AO Arena Manchester on May 30 and 31. Also, two extra UK shows at The SSE Hydro, Glasgow on June 2 and 3 have been added.
Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, plus singer Adam Lambert, spoke today of the “heartbreak” at having to once again postpone the highly anticipated UK and European dates of their Rhapsody World Tour.
“Under continuing Europe-wide COVID restrictions there’s no possible way the tour can go ahead as planned for this year,” they said. “The prospect of again not being able to look forward to performing and getting to experience those wonderful audiences is just heartbreaking.”
They continue:
“We wish to make it clear. None of the shows from 2020 and 2021 have been cancelled, just re-arranged due to COVID-19. We really do hope that as many people as possible who were booked for those original dates in 2020 will still be able to join us for the shows.
This time last year, Queen + Adam Lambert were reaching the end of the Rhapsody Tour’s Japan leg and heading out for eleven massive Australia and New Zealand shows.
“After starting off 2020 with an amazing run of shows playing to audiences of upwards of 50,000 in a single night,” said the band, “the cancellation of the Europe shows that should have followed last summer was a huge disappointment.”
Brian May adds: “Those incredible scenes at those concerts now seem like an impossibly distant dream. One minute we are out in Australia strutting our stuff and interacting with thousands of happy people, next minute we are stuck in the house. We were so lucky to be able to complete that tour, running just ahead of the wave that was about to break on us.”
“When we do eventually get to play in front of live audiences it will be with a ferociously renewed attack and we shall revel in the wonderful experience of actually interacting with them again,” continues Roger Taylor.
Adam Lambert, meanwhile, says: “It’s so disappointing to have to postpone again, but safety comes first, and we look forward to spring 2022 when we will be back, better than ever.”
The postponement of this year’s tour dates is especially disappointing for the band, who were looking forward to playing the shows as part of a significant landmark for Queen. With fifty years now having passed since the 1971 recruiting of John Deacon, completing Queen’s classic line-up, 2021 marks a Queen Golden Jubilee that the band was hoping to celebrate with fans.
Nevertheless, The Show Must Go On – and it will in 2022 when Queen + Adam Lambert return to touring and embark on their next chapter together.
Get your tickets here.
Queen + Adam Lambert The Rhapsody Tour 2022
Show Date and Time: May 30, 2022 – July 18, 2022
Show Location: Manchester AO Arena, Manchester, UK – Copenhagen Royal Arena, Copenhagen, DK
