Who Sang 'The Great Gig in the Sky' on Pink Floyd’s 1994 European Tour?

Sam Brown, the British singer known for her powerful soul voice, took on Clare Torry’s iconic wordless vocals for Pink Floyd’s 1994 European tour — and she never repeated herself. While the original 1973 recording was a single improvised take, Brown treated each night as a fresh canvas, altering phrasing, dynamics, and emotional peaks on the fly.

She performed the song on most dates of the European leg (and some North American shows), backed by Claudia Fontaine and Durga McBroom. Bootleg recordings from the tour reveal that Brown’s improvisations could shift from breathy and restrained to full-throated howls, making every version distinct. Unlike the album, where Torry’s vocal is pinned to a fixed arrangement, Brown’s live deliveries had no set structure — she fed off the band’s playing and the crowd’s energy.

Brown later said she felt both pressure and freedom: pressure because the song was sacred to