![]() I consider it a challenge before the whole human raceĪgain, Mercury puts himself out there as a full rock star… and then invites the audience to join him… WE Are The Champions. You brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it The lyric in the 2nd Verse is also bold – it asks us to sympathize with the rich and famous rock star. One particularly interesting Chorus moment is when, in bar 7, leading us to the wrap-up, the melody is A, F, Bb – over an F chord fairly common – and then it repeats those notes… but over an Eb/G chord… unusual. ![]() One of the reasons this works is because the bass notes are doubled – emphasized – by Brian Mays’ overdriven guitar, thereby giving the bass movement more weight than the actual chord qualities (which nonetheless are heard and do their job). ![]() Note the use of diminished chords (Gdim/Bb, Edim) and suspended chords (D/F#, Eb/G, Bb6/C) – not the kind of chords you normally hear in a heavy rock song. The melody, moving up and down fluidly through a range of an octave and a fourth, is accompanied by chords that maximize the excitement. It’s hard to imagine this Chorus being much more rousing. || F Aminor | Dminor Bb C | F Aminor | Bb D/F# | Gminor | Gdim/Bb Edim7 | F Eb/G | Ab Bb | Bb6/C || And in this case ‘right’ means triumphant – the Chorus is a 9 bar thrill ride. The Verse’s quiet, intimate section only lasts for 6 bars before the drama begins in bar 7 (above)… The melody climbs up the scale, leading us to the C7, the V chord of the new key.īy the time he gets to that C7, Mercury is throwing the book away and just going for whatever feels right to him melodically and harmonically. The soaring melody and highly dramatic chord changes (to the point, in the Queen style, of being campy) sell the unlikely transition. I’m not aware of any heavy rock song of the time or any other that fits this many key changes and non-traditional chords (for the genre) into so few bars. The singer goes from an intimate personal confession and transforms into the leader of ‘The Champions’ – with no verbal preparation. There’s no way to tell it’s going to go from ‘I’ to ‘We’. What I find interesting (along with the very slick modulation going into the Chorus) is that the song transitions from the above Verse right into ‘We Are The Champions’ etc. || 4/4/ Cminor Gminor | Cminor Gminor | Cminor Gminor | Cminor Gminor | Eb Ab/Eb | Eb Ab/Eb | Eb Bb/D Cminor F7 |2/4 Bb |4/4 Ab/Bb C7 || In fact, the beginning of the melody is similar to Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Send In The Clowns’ (not a bad thing, but not what you expect from the Verse of an iconic rock anthem). These words are sung to music that is much more Broadway or cabaret than rock. ![]() (And I need to go on and on and on and on) I’ve had my share of sand kicked in my face The first Verse is basically the singer feeling sorry for himself. (Please play and sing it you’ll be glad you did.) Looking more closely at the song gave me a better idea of where its power comes from. It takes nerve to write an anthem like this… and own it. ![]() I’ve always been impressed by how stirring its Chorus is, and how gutsy the over-the-top lyrics are. The chords interpretation is the result of my individual work.Queen’s ‘We Are The Champions’ (written by Freddie Mercury) consistently intrigued me. Authors can request their removal at any time. 159 of allows its use only for didactic, study and research activities. The lyrics and chords of the songs contained on the site are property of their respective authors. Guitar chords and lyrics of We Are The Champions by Queen ![]()
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