Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco) joined The Roots and Jimmy Fallon for a split-screen recreation of Queen and David Bowie classic “Under Pressure” for the Tuesday night edition of The Tonight Show: At Home.
The light-hearted cover comes off like one of Fallon and The Roots’ regular “classroom instruments” segments on The Tonight Show with a quarantine twist, from Questlove playing drums on jars, dishes, and bottles to Black Thought adding percussion with a rubber spatula on a toaster.
The visual result is amusing, to be sure, but what seems to set this clip apart from many of split-screen videos that have co-opted late-night TV during the pandemic is the quality of the performance—it’s not just amusing, it’s actually really good. With Urie tackling Freddie Mercury‘s vocals and Fallon doing his best Bowie, the recreation is jarringly true to the original 1981 hit. Respect to Urie here; there aren’t many people out there who can sing a convincing Freddie, and Brendon does it with aplomb.
Watch Brendon Urie, The Roots, and Jimmy Fallon perform “Under Pressure” from home below:
Jimmy Fallon, Brendon Urie, & The Roots – “Under Pressure” [Queen & David Bowie cover]