Lin-Manuel said that the song initially made him "burst into tears" and caused him to consider it much more critically than an ordinary pop song. He concluded that the song's wild introduction, featuring Mercury's "borderline insane" vocal gymnastics, masked David Bowie's powerfully emotional reprise at the conclusion of the song. That reprise appears to continually ascend a musical scale and clarifies that Under Pressure is about caring for people going through very difficult times on the "margins of society".