Queen Members Brian May and Roger Taylor Set for Virtual Japanese NYE Festivities

Queen icons Brian May and Roger Taylor will be working on New Years Eve–albeit remotely–from Los Angeles as they appear on the Japanese Channel NHK as part of their holiday celebrations.

Sarah Brightman, will also appear on the program to perform a song composed by X Japan’s Yoshiki, Yoshiki.

Taylor and Yoshiki are longtime friends and co-wrote “Foreign Sand” a song that charted in the U.K. A few years ago. Yoshiki opened the Classic Rock Awards in London with Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” while May was in the audience that night. 

The annual New Year’s Eve broadcast on Japan’s public station has been an annual event for the past 70 years and is the most popular TV program with a viewership of over 40%. It has long been viewed as the true barometer of status for domestic artists.

Despite the difficulties of 2020 –May was injured at home and the band couldn’t tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic–the band released a new record, Queen + Adam Lambert Live Around the World.