The Live Aid concert gave Queen the energy it needed. It boosted their energies and filled their hearts with the love of music that had brought them all together in the first place. This had been the best performance of their careers, and they couldn’t wait to take on the world by storm once again.
However, something wasn’t quite right. There was something going on with Freddie, and strangely, somehow, it felt as if this had been one of the last times he would perform. Tragically, this proved to be true.
Their music video was banned in the United States
Even though the song, “I Want to Break Free”, was a major hit in the US and England, the music video wasn’t so well received. They wanted to dress in drag and film a unique music video to go with the powerful song. But the US wasn’t so keen about it.
They wanted the video to be a comical reference to a famous British TV show at the time, called “Coronation Street”. Unsurprisingly, European countries understood it and got a kick out of it. But Americans, not so much. The video was banned by several American television stations.
The biggest performance of their lives
This caused Queen to lose demand and popularity with their American audiences. But they managed to make a successful comeback with their historic performance in the 1985 Live Aid Concert at Wembley Stadium. One of rock history’s most iconic performances to this date.
Queen was allotted an 18-minute set, but performed for nearly an hour. No one knew how to captivate audiences, especially a stadium crowd, like Freddie Mercury. Anyone who’s seen recordings of this concert is mesmerized, imagine actually being there. He could’ve gone on for much more than an hour, and people would’ve never stopped him.
Terrible news
As it turned out, Freddie had discovered he was HIV positive. He managed to keep this a secret from the public until the last days of his life. His partner, Jim Hutton, would later come to reveal that he was first diagnosed in 1987.
His band mates were destroyed by the news, they couldn’t believe such a beautiful and iconic person had so little time left. But Freddie, as always, decided he was going to enjoy every single minute of it, writing and singing until the very last second. And that’s exactly what he did. The band kept Freddie’s illness a secret, as he had requested. But soon enough, it started to show on Mercury’s physical appearance.
Unfinished business
Freddie got weaker with time, and being such a fashion icon, he was worried about how he’d started to look. Eventually, he realized he was no longer able to perform live. With time, even performing for cameras became difficult. During the last year of his life, there were moments when he could barely stand.
Soon, he was confined to his bed and slowly started to realize that he had so many unfinished projects and works of art that he wouldn’t have time to complete. One of these was “Mother Love”, written by guitarist Brian May, which features the last ever vocals sung by Mercury, six months before his death.