Top 20 Greatest Freddie Mercury Moments Ever

It’d been over two decades since Freddie Mercury had left the stage we mortals call life, but his ability to work a crowd hadn’t diminished in the least. The rumor mill prior to the 2012 London Games Closing Ceremony had it that the legend would return to the stage as a Tupac-ian hologram, but viewers were instead given something that looked more akin to a comm-link from the great beyond. Donning his once trademark moustache and Wembley-era yellow jacket, virtual-Freddie worked the crowd into the same state of frenzy as he did back in ‘86. It was a hard act for anyone to follow, but especially for Jessie J who - donning a snappy yellow jacket of her own - joined Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor to fill in for Mercury on “We Will Rock You.”

Sing along if you know the words! To outsiders, Queen doesn't always seem like the most fun bunch of guys – what, between their PhD carrying guitarist and... well, has John Deacon ever smiled? But we digress. While we all know and love “One Vision” today, the go to live show opener wasn’t ready to go right away. Drummer Roger Taylor originally presented the song to the band as an ode to Martin Luther King Jr. Trouble was, Fred and the gang had trouble finding the right words to make the song work. This led to Mercury throwing out an oddball assembly of words and constructs that were added into the now famous “One Vision.”

In 2020, we learned two things about Gary Numan. He might be a picky eater and he’s a massive Queen fan. While on tour in Japan back in the day, Numan decided to go to a Queen concert on his day off. But since he didn't know just how famous he was in the country, he soon found himself surrounded by a huge crowd of fans while in the audience. Fortunately, Queen's security detail pulled him to safety backstage. The band even invited Numan along for a post gig sushi dinner. Unfortunately, he didn't actually like sushi. When Mercury noticed he wasn't eating, Numan shyly said he'd grab some McDonalds later. Luckily “later” only meant 15 minutes because Mercury had fast food delivered to the restaurant by limo.

The coupling of Mary Austin and Freddie Mercury may’ve only lasted a handful of years, but their friendship remained intact until his passing. Although Mercury had proposed to Austin, the relationship came to an end as the singer came to terms with his sexuality. When they split, Freddie bought Mary a lavish apartment near his home and later became godfather to her first son. Ten years after the split they remained close, with Mercury claiming she was not only irreplaceable but that she was his only friend. As the end neared, Freddie told Mary he’d planned to leave her his Georgian mansion, royalties, as well the bulk of his £9,000,000 fortune. Austin would have preferred the £20M home be donated to a trust, but Mercury insisted that if life had turned out differently they would’ve married and it would have been hers regardless.

Do you think Freddie's solo career began with 1985's “Mr. Bad Guy” album? Or the 1984 single “Love Kills”? Nope, Mercury's solo career actually began before Queen was well known...albeit with two asterisks. First off, he performed under the baffling name Larry Lurex. Secondly, does it count as “solo” if his bandmates Brian and Roger were with him? This collaboration came about while the band had some down time when making their first album. Trident Studio's house engineer Robin Cable was working on a project and asked Mercury to lend his sublime vocals to some music. While Lurex’s songs may not sound like typical Freddie Mercury numbers, you can still hear his signature whistle right alongside May's wooly guitar work.

Picture Kenny Everett, Freddie Mercury, The Princess of Wales, and Cleo Rocos drinking champagne and watching “The Golden Girls”. They all improvise new dialogue that would never make it past NBC's censors. After having a good laugh, most of them prepare to hit London's notoriously unruly gay club, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Then the princess becomes adamant about coming along. In order to avoid scandal, Mercury came up with a full-proof plan: they would dress the princess in drag. Everett gave the royal aviators, a leather cap and an army jacket. Between Princess Diana’s disguise and Freddie drawing a lot of attention, she was able to stay and even order for herself completely undetected.

When punk arrived on the scene in the old days, the genre seemed to have a two part mission: do it yourself, and make the old guard feel irrelevant. Maybe that’s why punk rocker Sid Vicious felt like he needed to exchange words with Freddie Mercury. The two artists were both working in Wessex Studios at the same time in 1977. Sid apparently told Mercury that he was “bringing ballet to the masses”. The Queen frontman had an awesome retort. Mercury reportedly called the Sex Pistols’ member by the wrong name, mocked the punk rocker’s appearance and tossed him out by the collar.

Okay, so “It's a Hard Life” isn’t necessarily the song you reach for when you're in full rock out mode. It didn't do that well on the Billboard Hot 100. And the band themselves hate the video. BUT, if you can avoid being distracted by Freddie's weird eyeball sash you might notice he's got an odd strut going on – even by his standards. You might also notice the peculiar way he sits down on the steps near the end. Why? Because he just had a cast removed from a barely healed leg he had broken during a drinking misadventure in Munich. It's just another example of Mercury's “the show must go on” mindset.

In 1983, Michael Jackson was hot, and Freddie Mercury was already a legend. The Queen frontman was a fan of the king of pop and the two enjoyed clubbing together. So it seemed like a good idea for the two to team up. Jackson brought in “State of Shock”, and Mercury brought in “There Must Be More to Life Than This” and they recorded a song called “Victory” together. But the partnership began to fall apart. While accounts differ on what exactly happened, Mercury allegedly took issue with Jackson bringing his llama into the studio. It’s really a shame to think that an animal famous for spitting might’ve helped ruin the relationship between two hugely popular artists.

In the early 2000s, the BBC polled their audience to determine the 100 Greatest Britons. Their rankings quickly drew controversy. The list included Aleister Crowley, Guy Fawkes and John, Paul, and George of the Beatles. But it left out Ringo, only included 13 women and featured no Black Britons. Freddie Mercury came as a surprise to some, because he was born in Zanzibar - now Tanzania - in 1946. With Zanzibar being a British protectorate until the early 1960s, however, this meant that Mercury was in fact a British subject. Meanwhile, his parents being from India’s Parsi community meant he was also Asian. With Mercury having grown up in India prior to his family’s eventual move to England, the British Asian more than deserved a spot on the list.

Although confirmed HIV positive in 1987, Freddie Mercury did everything he could to keep his diagnosis secret. While fans and media were forced to speculate, only friend Mary Austin, partner Jim Hutton, the members of Queen and a few others knew the truth. Even close family was kept out of the loop, with his sister Kashmira not knowing the reality of her brother’s health until August of 1990. Mercury kept working and recording with Queen until June of 1991, but by November he saw the end was near and had stopped taking his medications. On November 23rd, the singer broke the silence by issuing a press release stating that not only had he contracted HIV but he was also now battling AIDS. Freddie Mercury would die of AIDS related complications the following day.

It’s hardly surprising to learn that Freddie Mercury had an appreciation for opera - after all, Queen’s fourth album was called “A Night at the Opera.” But what is surprising is just how well he could pull off the genre. Far from just some rocker riding the coattails and name recognition of an opera star, Mercury not only co-wrote “Barcelona,” but also sang Montserrat Caballé’s vocal parts for her when demoing the song. Paired with the soprano, Mercury was able to sing in his natural baritone vocal range - something he rarely did. While the rock icon was amazed by Caballé’s vocal control, the opera singer in turn developed the utmost respect for Mercury’s range and phrasing - which she found “astonishing.” Released as a single in 1987, “Barcelona” hit #8 on the British charts, but re-charted at #2 around the time of the 1992 Olympic Games for which it was written.

Sure, by 1982 lots of bands had played SNL, but few of those spots come with the back-story and trivia gold mine of Queen’s season 8 visit. Travelling with his then-beau Bill Reid, Freddie blew his voice out the night before during a heated argument with Reid and spent most of the day trying to get it back. Fixing his voice just as show time approached, the band played “Under Pressure” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”- a song Freddie not only wrote on guitar but played on guitar as well, despite claiming he couldn’t play the instrument “for nuts.” Meanwhile, the set represented not only Queen’s only SNL appearance, but their only performance on American TV - as well as their last ever live performance on U.S. soil with Mercury in the lead... and it was almost sabotaged by a shouting match.

On the surface, “The Great Pretender” is just some old song from the ‘50s, but as old songs from the ‘50s go, few suited him better. Although arguably the most dynamic frontman of his time, off-stage Freddie Mercury was a shy and reserved individual and saw The Platters’ cover as a fitting anthem. For the video, Mercury shaved his moustache - his signature look for most of the decade - revisited classic wardrobe choices and even re-enacted old Queen videos to make a statement about image. “The Great Pretender” suited Mercury so well it became the title for the American version of his posthumous album as well as a documentary about his life. Released right around the time he was diagnosed with HIV, the song’s title would only become weightier as he denied AIDS rumors and deflected queries about his health until the week he died.

By the time it had come for Queen to collect the Brit for Outstanding Contribution to Music, Freddie Mercury had been fending off and denying AIDS rumors for years. However, Queen’s lack of touring, and the occasional glimpse of Freddie’s deteriorating personal appearance did little to dissuade the rumor mill and tabloid press. Taking the stage for the first time since 1986, it was Brian May - rather than the always magnetic Mercury - who fronted the band. Dressed as suavely as ever, Freddie looked both stoic and yet terribly frail - a shell of the man who once worked crowds of thousands into a frenzy on charisma alone. While May spoke at length with charm and humor, Mercury offered only a simple “thank you, good night” in what would prove to be his final public appearance.

Despite proclaiming the opposite, Freddie really did like Star Wars - in fact, he liked Star Wars almost as much as he didn’t like riding bicycles. To this end, at a show in Houston, Texas, on August 10th, 1980, Mr Fahrenheit returned to the stage for an encore on the shoulders of the Sith lord himself. Sure, it was security guy Wally Verson rather than David Prowse in the Vader suit, but it’s still a hell of an entrance! Mercury actually did this a few times during the 1980 tour - until George Lucas allegedly took issue, that is. At a show in late 1979, Freddie made his way back to the stage by hitching a ride on Superman, but it’s the Houston Darth Vader encore that’s gone down in infamy thanks to photographer Tom Callins, who captured the bizarre image.

Looking back, the idea of “the show must go on” was a recurring theme in the life of Freddie Mercury. But that idea became all the more poignant when it came time to record the final track of what would be the last album released during his lifetime. Mercury was deep into the throes of HIV/AIDS and was suffering tremendously at the time. However, when Brian May expressed concerns about how demanding the song's melody is, Mercury stated he'd “effing do it”, only he didn’t say effing, and also downed some vodka. He nailed the vocals in one take.

Freddie Mercury's star power was so meteoric he was still selling out shows after he died. Announced at the 1992 BRIT Awards in February, the April concert sold out its 72,000 seats so quickly that the venue didn’t even have time to announce most of the acts. The event was part concert, part tribute and part musical eulogy. The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness truly showed the influence Queen and Mercury held over the then-current music scene. More importantly, it forever linked Mercury to the disease that took him from us. After his passing, Queen raised money and awareness for AIDS research and helped launch The Mercury Phoenix Trust. The organization is a charity led by May, Taylor, their manager Jim Beach, and Freddie's one time fiancée, Mary Austin.

Proving to be one of Queen’s biggest hits, “Under Pressure” was not only the band’s second UK #1 but also David Bowie’s third. Although the track grew out of a jam session and was partly rooted in an unreleased song from Roger Taylor, the former Ziggy Stardust completely drove the session and shook up the band’s usual MO. Bowie’s... intensity... may have put off some of the members of Queen, but his supremely confident vocals motivated Mercury to take things to a whole other level. Making full use of his upper register, Freddie delivered a performance that was as complementary as it was competitive with Bowie and proved that no matter how big the star, no one outshone Freddie Mercury.

Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

His Passport Listed His Name as “Frederick Mercury,” Although It Wasn't
What’s in a Name, Anyway?

“Love Kills”
Properly Solo

He Once Flew Coach to Japan Because His First Class Ticket Was for a Dodgy DC10 Plane
Hey, Dude Knew His Planes, Alright?

Ironically, Freddie Mercury originally didn’t want to take part in Live Aid, for fear of making a political statement. But, once onboard he saw the show as a way for Queen to upstage and out perform all the competition in one go. Banking on the band’s experience with stadium shows, Mercury led Queen through a week’s worth of rehearsals - distilling six of the band’s biggest hits into a now legendary 20-minute set. Freddie also selected an unassuming 6PM time slot - knowing that it was not only British primetime but also early enough that American audiences wouldn’t yet be jaded by a day’s worth of huge bands. Meanwhile, the band’s engineer saw to it that Queen was the loudest band to take the stage, which - coupled with Freddie’s unrivalled stage presence - made for what is now considered to be one of the finest rock and roll performances of all time.