"The Show Must Go On" is a song by British rock band Queen, featured as the twelfth and final track on their 1991 album, Innuendo.

[3] The song chronicles the effort of frontman Freddie Mercury continuing to perform despite approaching the end of his life, although his diagnosis with HIV/AIDS had not yet been made public in spite of ongoing media speculation that he was seriously ill.[4] When the band recorded the song in 1990, Mercury's condition had deteriorated to the point that May had concerns as to whether he was physically capable of singing it.

[5] The power ballad[6] was released as a single in the United Kingdom on 14 October 1991 in promotion for the Greatest Hits II album, just six weeks before Mercury died.

Following Mercury's death on 24 November 1991, the song re-entered the British charts and spent as many weeks in the top 75 (five) as it did upon its original release, initially reaching a peak of 16.

A live version with Elton John on vocals appeared on Queen's Greatest Hits III album.

[7] The song was first played live on 20 April 1992, during The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, performed by the three remaining members of Queen, with Elton John singing lead vocals and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi playing rhythm guitar.

Since its release, the song has appeared on television, film (including an operatic version in Moulin Rouge!

May wrote down the rest of the words as well as the melody, and added a bridge with a chord sequence inspired by Pachelbel's Canon.

It's a long story, that song, but I always felt it would be important because we were dealing with things that were hard to talk about at the time, but in the world of music, you could do it.The lyrics are full of allusions, metaphors and other figures of speech, making it somewhat difficult to understand.

In the end, the text refers to the determination, the furious desire to live ("I have to find the will to carry on with the show") in spite of vanishing strength ("inside my heart is breaking, my make-up may be flaking").

It's incredible.Jim Hutton, Mercury's partner who was with him for the last 6 years until his death, mentions the lyric that refers to the use of make up[13] during his last days: To me, the most autobiographical line was: "My make-up may be flaking but my smile still stays on".

It was his battle, no one else's, and he always wore a brave face against the ever-increasing odds against him.With Mercury's condition having deteriorated significantly due to complications with HIV/AIDS, no new footage of the lead singer was shot.

[15] This, along with the manner of the song's lyrics, continued to fuel long-running media reports that Mercury was seriously ill, although it was still officially denied that anything was seriously wrong.

The music video was compiled and edited by Austrian director team DoRo, consisting of Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher.

[45] In 2007, Dion performed "The Show Must Go On" as a tribute to Freddie Mercury on a TF1 TV Special with French singers, Christophe Maé and David Hallyday.

[46] Dion performed the song live during her Taking Chances World Tour in 2008, paying tribute to Queen and Mercury.