The late Freddie Mercury of classic rock group Queen is considered one of the greatest male vocalists in the history of rock and roll music. Now, thanks to voice isolation technology, listeners can hear his vocals a cappella on one of the group's greatest hits of all time, "We Are The Champions."
Mercury stood out from the field of rock singers due to his unique and versatile vocal style, which emanated from his rare five-octave vocal range that very few singers are born with or are able to develop. His theatrical live performances thrilled fans, and he sang the lead on numerous classic rock and pop songs that have stood the test of time, including "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Somebody to Love," "You're My Best Friend," "Bicycle Race," "Don't Stop Me Now," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," "Another One Bites The Dust," "We Will Rock You" and "Play the Game."
"We Are The Champions," however, may be the most venerable and recognizable Queen song of all time, as it remains a staple at sports events where it is played as an anthem along with "We Will Rock You," the song's original B-side. Many fans to this day believe the two separate songs are actually one and the same, due to the fact that they are often played back-to-back.
Now the folks at Playback.fm have used voice isolation technology to pick out Mercury's stellar vocal performance on "We Are The Champions" and then sync the vocals to a montage of various video footage of the group. The voice isolation is performed using a program which identifies only the vocal wave form, separates it from the rest of the music and allows it to be extracted from its accompaniment.
"We love Queen and Freddie Mercury, so we've edited four concert films including a rare recording session of 'We Are the Champions' and synced them all up to the isolated vocals in honor of the late, great, Freddie Mercury," the video description on YouTube proclaims. "This video showcases his presence and consistency as the ultimate stage man. RIP Freddie. You are a rock god."
Mercury died of AIDS in 1991, tragically leaving the world too soon, but fortunately providing a lasting legacy from which music fans can still discover new aspects of his incredible talent, including this amazing vocal performance, now isolated in all its glory.
