Top 10 Freddie Mercury Performances

While it's true that playing SNL has been a common rite of passage for pretty much any major band active since 1975, Queen's 1982 performance on the show is noteworthy for two reasons. It would turn out to be Mercury's final US performance with the band and it was a stellar example of how well the legendary frontman can shine - even after he damaged his voice arguing with his boyfriend. Singing “Under Pressure” without David Bowie as well as nailing “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love”? That’s what we call grace under pressure. And for those of you whose thoughts jumped from SNL to Wayne’s World, no, they didn’t play Bohemian Rhapsody.

Part of the charm of Mercury’s performance was that he really loved to have fun with the audience. His light-hearted humour was on full display when Queen played Sydney Australia in the second half of their 1985 The Works Tour. This included the frontman pouring water on the audience while telling them they could beat him up afterwards, and pretending to play along with Brian May during the We Will Rock You guitar solo. Charm aside, this show also had its quieter more emotional moments and the fast-paced rock Queen is known for.

After seven months of touring across the world, most performers would be phoning it in by the end, but not Freddie Mercury. He brought his all to this show capping off the Hot Space Tour in Tokorozawa, a suburb of Tokyo. Mercury’s voice notably cracked in a few places, and the fact that it was January in Japan and they were playing an open-air stadium likely didn’t make things any easier. But he and the band members still delivered a stellar show, Mercury even delivering some great vocal solos. Exhausted or not, the members of Queen were clearly enjoying themselves as evidenced by the way they rocked out, making for an all-around incredible performance.

Just as Queen was hitting the big time in the summer of 1976, they played a free show in London’s Hyde Park organized by an up-and-coming businessman named Richard Branson. You may have heard of him. With 150,000 fans present, the event broke the London record for concerts and cemented Mercury as a frontman`who can work a huge crowd. It was originally supposed to be shown on TV the following year. While that didn’t happen, low quality footage thankfully exists. The band played their biggest hits at the time including “Killer Queen”, “Stone Cold Crazy” and the relatively new “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which they split into three parts and separated by other songs.

Freddie Mercury sure loved to rock out for a cause. In December 1979, Paul McCartney and politician Kurt Waldheim staged a series of concerts in London’s Hammersmith Odeon to raise money for victims of the war in Cambodia. McCartney played with his band Wings, as did The Who, The Clash, Elvis Costello and The Pretenders. Queen, of course, performed too and brought the house down with a version of Now I’m Here. It featured Mercury in fine musical form - not to mention shirtless. From the footage of this event available today, you can see just how masterfully Mercury could work the crowd, building them into a frenzy before launching into a song. Talk about charisma.

Mercury had one of those voices that got people thinking he could have also sang opera. In 1987, he did the next best thing when he performed alongside opera star Montserrat Caballé. This is the only entry on this list that doesn’t feature the other members of Queen, but in their place, Mercury and Caballé are backed by a full orchestra. The lead single from their 1988 collaborative album by the same name, this song was written for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Sadly, Mercury would not live to perform it live at the event, but this 1987 performance is a testament to just how epic that could have been.

The two Earl’s Court concerts in 1977 ended off Queen’s A Day at the Races Tour and were noteworthy as the first time the band used its crown-shaped lighting rig. This is also where they started fully embracing the fact that the audience wanted to sing along with Mercury and be part of the show. This realization would lead to the creation of We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions and fully cement the band and Mercury’s performance style for the rest of their careers. These shows also featured a great version of Killer Queen.

It was the first ever edition of the long-running Rock in Rio festival and Queen kept 400,000 and then 250,000 people partying through the night two nights in a row…literally. Their headlining set started at 2am both nights, but Mercury clearly wasn’t tired. His energy was matched only by that of the crowd, which sang and clapped along, similarly showing no signs of fatigue. His costumes were as elaborate as ever and in some cases unique to this performance. His famous Union Jack cape even had the Brazilian flag on the back of it. Now that’s how you play to a local audience.

When Queen played London’s Wembley Stadium in 1986, they got enough great material to release a double album, but the part of the show that really stood out wasn’t one of their hit songs. Instead, it was an improvised bit Mercury did between tunes. The frontman led the audience in a vocal call and response game for roughly two minutes. It showcased not only Mercury’s vocal range, but also his ability to work a room, even a huge room packed to the rafters and do so without relying on the well-crafted lyrics and melodies he is famous for. This wasn’t the only time Mercury tried something like this, but it was the biggest.

Holding your own when you're sharing a stage with the likes of The Rolling Stones and The Who isn't an easy task. But at Live Aid, Mercury didn't just “hold his own” in front of an estimated 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium and 1.9 billion watching around the world, he stole the show. Instead of playing just a few songs, Queen packed condensed versions of six of their biggest hits into the 21 minute set. The passion, showmanship and top-notch musical chops combined to make this not only Mercury's best performance but one of the greatest rock performances of all time.