1968–1971: Foundations The founding members of Queen met in west London during the late 1960s. Guitarist
Brian May had built
his own guitar with his father in 1963, and formed the group 1984 (named after
Orwell's novel) the following year with singer
Tim Staffell. May left the group in early 1968 to focus on his degree in Physics and Infrared Astronomy at
Imperial College and find a group that could write original material. He formed the group
Smile with Staffell (now playing bass) and keyboardist Chris Smith. To complete the line-up, May placed an advertisement on a college notice board for a "
Mitch Mitchell/
Ginger Baker type" drummer;
Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. Smith left the group in early 1969, immediately before a gig at the
Royal Albert Hall with
Free and the
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. While attending
Ealing Art College in west London, Staffell became friends with fellow student
Farrokh "Freddie" Bulsara, who was from
Zanzibar and of Indian
Parsi descent. Bulsara had studied fashion design for a year before switching to graphic art and design, and soon became a keen fan of Smile. He asked if he could join the group as lead singer, but May felt Staffell would not give up that role. He also ran a stall in
Kensington Market with Taylor. heritage award at
Prince Consort Road commemorating Queen's first performance in London In 1970, Staffell quit Smile, feeling his interests in
soul and
R&B clashed with the group's hard rock sound and being fed up with the lack of success. He formed the group
Humpy Bong with former
Bee Gees drummer
Colin Petersen. The remaining members accepted Bulsara as lead singer, and recruited Taylor's friend
Mike Grose as bassist. The four played their first gig at a fundraising event in
Truro on 27 June 1970. Bulsara suggested the group should be renamed to "Queen". The others were uncertain at first, but he said, "it's wonderful, dear, people will love it". At the same time, he decided to
change his surname to Mercury, inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" in the song "
My Fairy King". The group played their first London gig on 18 July. The early set consisted of material that later appeared on the first two albums, along with various rock and roll covers, such as
Cliff Richard and
the Shadows' "
Please Don't Tease". They attracted the attention of producer
John Anthony, who was interested in the group's sound but thought they had the wrong bass player. After three live gigs, Mike Grose decided not to continue with the band and was replaced by
Barry Mitchell (ex
Crushed Butler). Mitchell played thirteen gigs with Queen between August 1970 and January 1971. In turn, Mitchell left in January 1971 and was replaced by
Doug Bogie for two live gigs.
1971–1974: Queen and Queen II In February 1971,
John Deacon joined Queen. In addition to being an experienced bassist, his quiet demeanour complemented the band, and he was skilled in electronics. On 2 July, Queen played their first show with the classic line-up of Mercury, May, Taylor and Deacon at a Surrey college outside London. May called Terry Yeadon, an engineer at Pye Studios where Smile had recorded, to see if he knew anywhere where Queen could record. Yeadon had since moved to
De Lane Lea Studios' new premises in
Wembley, and they needed a group to test out the equipment and recording rooms. He tried asking
the Kinks but couldn't get hold of them. Therefore, he told Queen they could record some demos in exchange for the studio's acoustic tests. They recorded five of their own songs, "
Liar", "
Keep Yourself Alive", "
Great King Rat", "
The Night Comes Down" and "
Jesus". During the recording, producers John Anthony and
Roy Thomas Baker visited the band. The two were taken with "Keep Yourself Alive" and began promoting the band to several record companies. in Liverpool, marking a 31 October 1970 Queen concert at the venue Promoter Ken Testi managed to attract the interest of
Charisma Records, who offered Queen an advance of around £25,000, but the group turned them down as they realised the label would promote
Genesis as a priority. Testi then entered discussions with
Trident Studios'
Norman Sheffield, who offered the band a management deal under Neptune Productions, a subsidiary of Trident, to manage the band and enable them to use their facilities, while the management searched for a deal. This suited both parties, as Trident were expanding into management, and under the deal, Queen were able to make use of the hi-tech recording facilities used by signed musicians. Taylor later described these early off-peak studio hours as "gold dust". Queen began 1972 with a gig at
Bedford College, London, where only six people turned up. After a few more shows, they stopped live performances for eight months to work on the album with Anthony and Baker. During the sessions at Trident, they saw
David Bowie with
the Spiders from Mars live and realised they needed to make an impact with the album, otherwise they would be left behind. Co-producers Anthony and Baker initially clashed with the band (May in particular) on the direction of the album, bringing the band's inexperience in the studio to bear. The band's fighting centered around their efforts to integrate technical perfection with the reality of live performances, leading to what Baker referred to as "kitchen sink overproduction". The resulting album was a mix of
heavy metal and
progressive rock. The group were unhappy with the re-recording of "The Night Comes Down", so the finished album uses the De Lane Lea demo. Another track, "
Mad the Swine" was dropped from the running order after the band and Baker could not agree on a mix.
Mike Stone created the final mix for "Keep Yourself Alive", and he went on to work on several other Queen albums. By January 1972, the band finished recording their debut album, but had yet to secure a record contract. In order to attract record company interest, Trident booked a "showcase" gig on 6 November at
The Pheasantry, followed by a show at the
Marquee Club on 20 December. Queen promoted the unreleased album in February 1973 on
BBC Radio 1, still unsigned. The following month, Trident managed to strike a deal with
EMI Records. "Keep Yourself Alive" was released as a single on 6 July, with the album
Queen appearing a week later. The front cover showed a shot of Mercury live on stage taken by Taylor's friend Douglass Puddifoot. Deacon was credited as "Deacon John" while Taylor used his full name, Roger Meddows-Taylor. The album was received well by critics; Gordon Fletcher of
Rolling Stone called it "superb", However, it drew little mainstream attention, and "Keep Yourself Alive" sold poorly. Retrospectively, it is cited as the album's highlight, and in 2008
Rolling Stone ranked it 31st in the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time", describing it as "an entire album's worth of riffs crammed into a single song". The album was certified gold in the UK and the US. The album reached number five on the
British album chart and became the first Queen album to chart in the UK. The Mercury-written lead single "
Seven Seas of Rhye" reached number 10 in the UK, giving the band their first hit. The album featured a "layered" sound which would become their signature and features long complex instrumental passages, fantasy-themed lyrics and instrumental virtuosity. Aside from its only single, the album also included the song "
The March of the Black Queen", a six-minute epic which lacks a chorus. Critical reaction was mixed; the
Winnipeg Free Press, while praising the band's debut album, described
Queen II as an "over-produced monstrosity".
AllMusic has described the album as a favourite among the band's hardcore fans, and it is the first of three Queen albums to feature in the book
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. sold well throughout Europe, and went gold in the US. The album experimented with a variety of musical genres, including
British music hall,
heavy metal, ballads, ragtime, and
Caribbean. May's "
Now I'm Here" documented the group's curtailed American tour, and "Brighton Rock" served as a vehicle for his regular on-stage solo guitar spot. Deacon wrote his first song for the group, "Misfire", while the live favourite "
Stone Cold Crazy" was credited to the whole band. Mercury wrote the closing number, "In the Lap of the Gods… Revisited", with the intention that the audience could sing along to the chorus when played live. This would be repeated later on, more successfully, in songs such as "We Are the Champions". " at
BBC Television Centre (pictured) on the music chart show
Top of the Pops in December 1974. This was their second appearance on the show; their previous (performing "
Seven Seas of Rhye") brought them overnight fame. The single "
Killer Queen" was written by Mercury about a high-class prostitute. It reached number two on the British charts The song was partly recorded at
Rockfield Studios in Wales. With Mercury playing the grand piano, it combines camp,
vaudeville, and British music hall with May's guitar. "Now I'm Here" was released as the second single and reached number eleven. In 2006,
Classic Rock ranked
Sheer Heart Attack number 28 in "The 100 Greatest British Rock Albums Ever", and in 2007,
Mojo ranked it No.88 in "The 100 Records That Changed the World". It is also the second of three Queen albums to feature in the book
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. He was given a promotional copy on the condition he didn't play it, but ended up doing so fourteen times over a single weekend. Capital's switchboard was overwhelmed with callers inquiring when the song would be released. and became the
Christmas number one twice in the UK, the only single ever to do so. It has also been voted the greatest song of all time in three different polls. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was promoted with a music video directed by
Bruce Gowers, who had already shot several of Queen's live concerts. The group wanted a video so they could avoid appearing on the BBC's
Top of the Pops, which would clash with tour dates, and it would have looked strange miming to such a complex song. Filmed at
Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, the video cost £3,500, five times the typical promotional budget, and was shot in three hours. The operatic section featured a reprise of the
Queen II cover, with the band member's heads animated. On the impact of the "Bohemian Rhapsody" promotional video,
Rolling Stone states: "Its influence cannot be overstated, practically inventing the music video seven years before MTV went on the air." Ranking it number 31 on their list of the 50 key events in rock music history,
The Guardian stated it "ensured videos would henceforth be a mandatory tool in the marketing of music". Radio broadcaster
Tommy Vance states, "It became the first record to be pushed into the forefront by virtue of a video. Queen were certainly the first band to create a 'concept' video. The video captured the musical imagery perfectly. You cannot hear that music without seeing the visuals in your mind's eye."
A Night at the Opera was very successful in the UK and went
triple platinum in the United States. It has also ranked highly in international polls; in a worldwide
Guinness poll, it was voted the 19th-greatest of all time, and an
ABC poll saw the Australian public vote it the 28th-greatest of all time.
A Night at the Opera has frequently appeared in "greatest albums" lists reflecting the opinions of critics. Among other accolades, it was ranked number 16 in
Q magazine's "The 50 Best British Albums Ever" in 2004, a poll done in collaboration with British music and entertainment retailer
HMV. It was also placed at number 230 on
Rolling Stone magazine's list of "
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003.
A Night at the Opera is the third and final Queen album to be featured in the book
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. The second single from the album was Deacon's "
You're My Best Friend", which peaked at number sixteen on the US
Billboard Hot 100,
1976–1979: A Day at the Races to Live Killers By 1976, Queen were back in the studio recording
A Day at the Races, which is often regarded as a sequel album to
A Night at the Opera. It again borrowed the name of a Marx Brothers movie, and its cover was similar to that of
A Night at the Opera, a variation on the same Queen logo. Musically,
A Day at the Races was by both fans' and critics' standards a strong effort, reaching number one in the UK and Japan, and number five in the US. Queen played a
landmark gig on 18 September 1976, a free concert in
Hyde Park, London, organised by the entrepreneur
Richard Branson. Queen were late arriving onstage and ran out of time to play an encore; the police informed Mercury that he would be arrested if he attempted to go on stage again. May enjoyed the gig particularly, as he had been to see previous concerts at the park, such as the first one organised by
Blackhill Enterprises in 1968, featuring
Pink Floyd. On 1 December 1976, Queen were the intended guests on London's early evening
Today programme, but they pulled out at the last minute, which caused their late replacement on the show, EMI labelmate the
Sex Pistols, to give their infamous expletive-strewn interview with
Bill Grundy. During the
A Day at the Races Tour in 1977, Queen performed sold-out shows at
Madison Square Garden, New York, in February, supported by
Thin Lizzy, and Mercury and Taylor socialised with that group's leader
Phil Lynott. They ended the tour with two concerts at
Earls Court, London, in June, which commemorated the
Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, and at the cost of £50,000 the band used a lighting rig in the shape of a crown for the first time. The band's sixth studio album
News of the World was released in 1977, which has gone
four times platinum in the US, and twice in the UK. The album contained many songs tailor-made for live performance, including two of rock's most recognisable anthems, "
We Will Rock You" and the rock ballad "
We Are the Champions", both of which became enduring international
sports anthems, and the latter reached number four in the US. Queen commenced the
News of the World Tour in November 1977, and
Robert Hilburn of the
Los Angeles Times called this concert tour the band's "most spectacularly staged and finely honed show". During the tour they sold out another two shows at MSG, and in 1978 they received the
Madison Square Garden Gold Ticket Award for passing more than 100,000 unit ticket sales at the venue. , Connecticut in November 1977|alt=l-r: John Deacon, Brian May, and Freddie Mercury seen live in 1978 In 1978, Queen released
Jazz, which reached number two in the UK and number six on the
Billboard 200 in the US. The album included the hit singles "
Fat Bottomed Girls" and "
Bicycle Race" on a double-sided record. Critical reviews of the album in the years since its release have been more favourable than initial reviews. Another notable track from
Jazz, "
Don't Stop Me Now", provides another example of the band's exuberant vocal harmonies. In 1978, Queen
toured the US and Canada, and spent much of 1979 touring in Europe and Japan. They released their first live album,
Live Killers, in 1979; it went platinum twice in the US. Queen also released the very successful single "
Crazy Little Thing Called Love", a
rockabilly inspired song done in the style of
Elvis Presley. Having written the song on guitar and played rhythm on the record, Mercury played rhythm guitar when performing the song live, the first time he ever played guitar in concert. On 26 December 1979, Queen played the opening night at the
Concert for the People of Kampuchea in London, having accepted a request by the event's organiser,
Paul McCartney. and sold over four million copies in the US. but was later revealed by producer
Roy Thomas Baker to be an attempt to clarify that those albums' multi-layered solos were created with guitars, not synths, as record company executives kept assuming at the time. In September 1980, Queen performed three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. In 1980, Queen also released
the soundtrack they had recorded for
Flash Gordon. At the
1981 American Music Awards in January, "Another One Bites the Dust" won the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single, and Queen were nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Band, Duo, or Group. In February 1981, Queen travelled to South America as part of
The Game Tour, and became the first rock band outside
the Americas to play stadiums in Latin America. On playing the concerts,
Classic Rock magazine states, "They were under the spotlight from all quarters, as the entire music industry waited to see if their ambitious plans would bear fruit". and two concerts at the
Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil, where they played to more than 131,000 people in the first night (then the largest paying audience for a single band anywhere in the world) and more than 120,000 people the following night. A region then largely ruled by military dictatorships, the band were greeted with scenes of fan-fever, and the promoter of their first shows at the
Vélez Sarsfield Stadium in Buenos Aires was moved to say: "For music in Argentina, this has been a case of before the war and after the war. Queen have liberated this country, musically speaking." The group's second show at Vélez Sarsfield was broadcast on national television and watched by over 30 million. Backstage, they were introduced to footballer
Diego Maradona. Topping the charts in Brazil and Argentina, the ballad "
Love of My Life" stole the show in South American concerts. Mercury would stop singing and would then conduct the audience as they took over, with
Lesley-Ann Jones writing "the fans knew the song by heart. Their English was word-perfect." Later that year Queen performed for more than 150,000 on 9 October at Monterrey (
Estadio Universitario) and 17 and 18 at Puebla (
Estadio Zaragoza), Mexico. Though the gigs were successful, they were marred by a lack of planning and suitable facilities, with audiences throwing projectiles on stage. Mercury finished the final gig saying, "Adios, amigos, you motherfuckers!" On 24 and 25 November, Queen played two nights at the
Montreal Forum, Quebec, Canada. One of Mercury's most notable performances of
The Game final track, "
Save Me", took place in Montreal, and the concert is recorded in the live album,
Queen Rock Montreal. Queen worked with
David Bowie on the 1981 single "
Under Pressure". The first-time collaboration with another artist was spontaneous, as Bowie happened to drop by the studio while Queen were recording. Mercury and Bowie recorded their vocals on the track separately to each other, each coming up with individual ideas. The song topped the UK charts. In October, Queen released their first compilation album, titled
Greatest Hits, which showcased the group's highlights from 1974 to 1981. The
best-selling album in UK chart history, it is the only album to sell over seven million copies in the UK. As of July 2022, it has spent over
1000 weeks in the UK Album Chart. According to
The Telegraph, approximately one in three families in the UK own a copy. The album is certified
nine times platinum in the US. In 1982, the band released the album
Hot Space, a departure from their trademark seventies sound, this time being a mixture of
pop rock, dance, disco,
funk, and
R&B. Most of the album was recorded in
Munich during the most turbulent period in the band's history. Mercury and Deacon enjoyed the new soul and funk influences, but Taylor and May were less favourable, and were critical of the influence Mercury's personal manager
Paul Prenter had on him. According to
Mack, Queen's producer, Prenter loathed rock music and was in Mercury's ear throughout the
Hot Space sessions. May was also scathing of Prenter—Mercury's manager from 1977 to 1984—for being dismissive of the importance of radio stations and their vital connection between the artist and the community, and for denying them access to Mercury. May states, "this guy, in the course of one tour, told every record station to fuck off". Queen roadie Peter Hince wrote "None of the band cared for him [Prenter], apart from Freddie", with Hince regarding Mercury's favouring of Prenter as an act of "misguided loyalty". During the Munich sessions, Mercury spent time with Mack and his family, becoming godfather to Mack's first child.
Q magazine would list
Hot Space as one of the top fifteen albums where great rock acts lost the plot. Though the album confused some fans with the change of musical direction, it still reached number 4 in the UK. in 1982 Queen toured to promote
Hot Space, but found some audience unreceptive to the new material. At a gig in
Frankfurt, Mercury told some people heckling the new material, "If you don't want to listen to it, go home!" Former Mott the Hoople keyboardist
Morgan Fisher joined as an additional touring member. Shows were planned at
Arsenal Stadium and
Old Trafford, but these were cancelled as
Pope John Paul II was touring Britain, leading to a lack of available outdoor facilities such as toilets. The gigs were moved to the
Milton Keynes Bowl and
Elland Road,
Leeds instead. The Milton Keynes concert was filmed by
Tyne Tees Television and later released on DVD. On 14 and 15 September 1982, the band performed their last two gigs in the US with Mercury on lead vocals, playing at
The Forum in Inglewood, California. Fisher was replaced as touring keyboardist by
Fred Mandel for the North American shows. The band stopped touring North America after their Hot Space Tour, as their success there had waned, although they performed on American television for the only time during the eighth-season premiere of
Saturday Night Live on 25 September of the same year; it became the final public performance of the band in North America before the death of their frontman. Their fall in popularity in the US has been partially attributed to
homophobia: Mercury had adopted what
Rolling Stone's
Mikal Gilmore referred to as a "gay clone look," with a thick mustache. Gilmore wrote, "At some shows on the band's 1980 American tour, fans tossed disposable razor blades onstage: They didn't like this identity of Mercury—what they perceived as a brazenly gay rock & roll hero—and they wanted him to shed it." The group finished the year with a Japanese tour.
1983–1984: The Works After the Hot Space Tour concluded with a concert at
Seibu Lions Stadium in
Tokorozawa, Japan in November 1982, Queen decided they would take a significant amount of time off. May later said at that point, "we hated each other for a while". The band reconvened nine months later to begin recording a new album at the
Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles and
Musicland Studios, Munich. Several members of the band also explored side projects and solo work. Taylor released his second solo album,
Strange Frontier. May released the mini-album
Star Fleet Project, collaborating with
Eddie Van Halen. Queen left
Elektra Records, their label in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and signed onto
EMI/
Capitol Records. In February 1984, Queen released their eleventh studio album,
The Works. Hit singles included "
Radio Ga Ga", which makes a nostalgic defence of the radio format, "
Hammer to Fall" and "
I Want to Break Free".
Rolling Stone hailed the album as "the
Led Zeppelin II of the eighties." In the UK
The Works went triple platinum and remained in the albums chart for two years. The album failed to do well in the US, where, in addition to issues with their new record label Capitol Records (who had recently severed ties with their independent promotions teams due to a government report on
payola), the cross-dressing video for "I Want to Break Free", a spoof of the British soap opera
Coronation Street, proved controversial and was banned by
MTV. The concept of the video came from Roger Taylor via a suggestion from his girlfriend. He told
Q magazine: "We had done some really serious, epic videos in the past, and we just thought we'd have some fun. We wanted people to know that we didn't take ourselves too seriously, that we could still laugh at ourselves." Director of the video
David Mallet said Mercury was reluctant to do it, commenting "it was a hell of a job to get him out of the dressing room". That year, Queen began
The Works Tour, the first tour to feature keyboardist
Spike Edney as an extra live musician. The tour featured nine sold-out dates in October in
Bophuthatswana, South Africa, at the arena in
Sun City. Upon returning to England, they were the subject of outrage, having played in South Africa during the height of
apartheid and in violation of worldwide
divestment efforts and a United Nations cultural boycott. The band responded to the critics by stating that they were playing music for fans in South Africa, and they also stressed that the concerts were played before integrated audiences. Queen donated to a school for the deaf and blind as a philanthropic gesture but were fined by the
British Musicians' Union and placed on the United Nations'
blacklisted artists. In 2021, Taylor voiced his regret for the decision to perform at Sun City, saying that "we went with the best intentions, but I still think it was kind of a mistake."
1985–1986: Live Aid, A Kind of Magic and tours In January 1985, Queen headlined two nights of the first
Rock in Rio festival at
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and played in front of over 300,000 people each night.
The Boston Globe described it as a "mesmerising performance". In April and May 1985, Queen completed the Works Tour with sold-out shows in Australia and Japan. At
Live Aid, held at
Wembley on 13 July 1985, in front of the biggest-ever TV audience of an estimated 400 million, Queen performed some of their greatest hits. Many of the sold-out stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang, and swayed in unison. The show's organisers,
Bob Geldof and
Midge Ure; other musicians such as
Elton John and
Cliff Richard; and journalists writing for the
BBC,
CNN,
Rolling Stone,
MTV,
The Guardian and
The Daily Telegraph, among others, described Queen as the highlight. Interviewed backstage,
Roger Waters stated: "Everybody's been buzzing about Queen that I've run into. They had everybody completely spellbound." An industry poll in 2005 ranked it the greatest rock performance of all time. Mercury's powerful, sustained note—"Aaaaaay-o"—during the
call-and-response a cappella segment came to be known as "The Note Heard Round the World". The band were revitalised by the response to Live Aid—a "shot in the arm" Roger Taylor called it—and the ensuing increase in record sales. In 1986 Mercury commented: "From our perspective, the fact that Live Aid happened when it did was really lucky. It came out of nowhere to save us. For sure that was a turning point. Maybe you could say that in the history of Queen, it was a really special moment." Queen ended 1985 by releasing the single "
One Vision" and a limited-edition boxed set of Queen albums,
The Complete Works. The package included the 1984 Christmas single "
Thank God It's Christmas" and previously unreleased material. In early 1986, Queen recorded the album
A Kind of Magic, containing several reworkings of songs written for the fantasy action film
Highlander. The album was successful in the UK, West Germany and several other countries, producing a string of hits including "
A Kind of Magic", "
Friends Will Be Friends", "
Princes of the Universe" and "
Who Wants to Live Forever"; the latter featuring an orchestra conducted by
Michael Kamen. The album was less successful in North America, reaching 46 in the US, and was described by biographer
Mark Blake as "a so-so album" and "a somewhat uneven listening experience". In 2007,
Classic Rock ranked it the 28th greatest soundtrack album of all time. In mid-1986, Queen went on the
Magic Tour, their final tour with Mercury. They once again hired Spike Edney. Queen began the tour at the
Råsunda Stadium in Stockholm, Sweden, and later performed a
concert at
Slane Castle, Ireland, in front of an audience of 95,000, which broke the venue's attendance record. The band also played behind the
Iron Curtain when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 at the
Népstadion in
Budapest (released in the concert film
Hungarian Rhapsody: Queen Live in Budapest), in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe. More than one million people saw Queen on the tour—400,000 in the UK alone, a record at the time. The demand for tickets saw extra dates added to the tour, with concert promoter
Harvey Goldsmith stating "they seem to have an endless market." Queen could not book Wembley for a third night, but played at
Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire on 9 August. The show sold out within two hours and over 120,000 fans packed the park for what was Queen's final performance with Mercury. At the end of the concert the band appeared on stage for the final time to an encore of "God Save the Queen", with Mercury, in his crown and gown, bidding the crowd "goodnight and sweet dreams". He had in fact been diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987, but did not make his illness public, with only his inner circle of colleagues and friends aware of his condition.
The Miracle also began a change in direction of Queen's songwriting philosophy. Beforehand, nearly all songs had been written by and credited to a single member. With
The Miracle, their songwriting became more collaborative, and they vowed to credit the final product only to Queen as a group. In 1990, Queen ended their contract with Capitol and signed with
Hollywood Records; through the deal,
Disney acquired the North American distribution rights to Queen's catalogue for $10 million, and remains the group's recorded-music rights owner and distributor in the US and Canada; the band retained ownership of the global rights through the UK-based Queen Productions
Ltd. In February that year, Mercury made what would prove to be his final public appearance when he joined the rest of Queen onstage at the
Dominion Theatre in London to collect the
Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. Their fourteenth studio album,
Innuendo, was released in early 1991 with "
Innuendo" and other charting singles released later in the year. The music video for "
The Show Must Go On" featured archive footage of Queen's performances between 1981 and 1989, and along with the manner of the song's lyrics, fuelled reports that Mercury was dying. Mercury was increasingly ill and could barely walk when the band recorded "The Show Must Go On" in 1990. Because of this, May had concerns about whether he was physically capable of singing it, but May recalled that he "completely killed it". the
seventh best-selling album in Germany, is certified Diamond in France where it is one of the
best-selling albums, and has sold 16 million copies worldwide. was held at the original
Wembley Stadium in London on 20 April 1992, the same venue where Queen performed at Live Aid in July 1985. On 23 November 1991, in a prepared statement made on his deathbed, Mercury confirmed that he had AIDS. Within 24 hours of the statement, he
died of
bronchial pneumonia, which was brought on as a complication of the disease. His funeral service on 27 November in
Kensal Green, West London was private, and held in accordance with the
Zoroastrian religious faith of his family. "Bohemian Rhapsody" was re-released as a single shortly after Mercury's death, with "
These Are the Days of Our Lives" as the double A-side. The
music video for the latter contains Mercury's final scenes in front of the camera. Ron Hart of
Rolling Stone wrote, "the conga-driven synth ballad "These Are the Days of Our Lives" is
Innuendo most significant single, given that its video marked the last time his fans were able to see the singer alive." The video was recorded on 30 May 1991 (which proved to be Mercury's final work with Queen). The single went to
number one in the UK, remaining there for five weeks—the only recording to top the Christmas chart twice and the only one to be number one in four different years (1975, 1976, 1991, and 1992). Initial proceeds from the single—approximately £1,000,000—were donated to the
Terrence Higgins Trust, an AIDS charity. Queen's popularity was stimulated in North America when "Bohemian Rhapsody" was featured in the 1992 comedy film ''
Wayne's World. The compilation album Classic Queen also reached number four on the Billboard'' 200, and is certified three times platinum in the US. On 20 April 1992,
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at London's
Wembley Stadium to a crowd of 72,000. Performers, including
Def Leppard,
Robert Plant,
Tony Iommi,
Roger Daltrey,
Guns N' Roses,
Elton John,
David Bowie,
George Michael,
Annie Lennox,
Seal,
Extreme, and
Metallica performed various Queen songs along with the three remaining Queen members (and
Spike Edney.) The concert is listed in the
Guinness Book of Records as "The largest rock star
benefit concert", as it was televised to over 1.2 billion viewers worldwide, Featuring tracks such as "
Too Much Love Will Kill You" and "
Heaven for Everyone", it was constructed from Mercury's final recordings in 1991, material left over from their previous studio albums and re-worked material from May, Taylor, and Mercury's solo albums. The album also featured the song "
Mother Love", the last vocal recording Mercury made, which he completed using a drum machine, over which May, Taylor and Deacon later added the instrumental track. After completing the penultimate verse, Mercury had told the band he "wasn't feeling that great" and stated, "I will finish it when I come back, next time". Mercury never returned to the studio afterwards, leaving May to record the final verse of the song. Both stages of recording, before and after Mercury's death, were completed at the
band's studio in
Montreux, Switzerland. The album reached number one in the UK following its release, their
ninth number one album, and sold 20 million copies worldwide. On 25 November 1996, a statue of Mercury was unveiled in Montreux overlooking
Lake Geneva, almost five years to the day since his death. In 1997, Queen returned to the studio to record "
No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)", a song dedicated to Mercury and all those who die too soon. It was released as a bonus track on the
Queen Rocks compilation album later that year, and features in
Greatest Hits III. In January 1997, Queen performed "
The Show Must Go On" live with Elton John and the
Béjart Ballet in Paris on a night Mercury was remembered, and it marked the last performance and public appearance of John Deacon, who chose to retire; this left May and Taylor as the two remaining original members. The Paris concert was only the second time Queen had played live since Mercury's death, prompting Elton John to urge them to perform again. Brian May and Roger Taylor performed together at several award ceremonies and charity concerts, sharing vocals with various guest singers. During this time, they were billed as
Queen + followed by the guest singer's name. In 1998, the duo appeared at
Luciano Pavarotti's benefit concert with May performing "
Too Much Love Will Kill You" with Pavarotti, later playing "Radio Ga Ga", "We Will Rock You", and "We Are the Champions" with
Zucchero. They again attended and performed at Pavarotti's benefit concert in
Modena, Italy in May 2003. Several of the guest singers recorded new versions of Queen's hits under the
Queen + name, such as
Robbie Williams providing vocals for "We Are the Champions" for the soundtrack of ''
A Knight's Tale'' (2001). at 6358 Hollywood Boulevard In November 1999,
Greatest Hits III was released. This featured, among others, "Queen +
Wyclef Jean" on a
rap version of "Another One Bites the Dust". A live version of "Somebody to Love" by
George Michael and a live version of "The Show Must Go On" with
Elton John were also featured in the album. By this point, Queen's vast amount of record sales made them the second-bestselling artist in the UK of all time, behind
the Beatles. On 18 October 2002, Queen were awarded the 2,207th star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame, for their work in the music industry, which is located at 6358
Hollywood Blvd. On 29 November 2003, May and Taylor performed at the
46664 Concert hosted by
Nelson Mandela at
Green Point Stadium, Cape Town, to raise awareness of the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. During that period May and Taylor spent time at Mandela's home, discussing how Africa's problems might be approached, and two years later the band were made ambassadors for the 46664 cause.
2004–2009: Queen + Paul Rodgers during their 2005
tour|alt=l-r:Paul Rodgers, Roger Taylor, and Brian May live in 2005 for the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour At the end of 2004, May and Taylor announced that they would reunite and return to touring in 2005 with
Paul Rodgers (founder and former lead singer of
Free and
Bad Company). Brian May's website also stated that Rodgers would be "featured with" Queen as "Queen + Paul Rodgers", not replacing Mercury. In November 2004, Queen were among the inaugural inductees into the
UK Music Hall of Fame, and the award ceremony was the first event at which Rodgers joined May and Taylor as vocalist. Taylor said: "We never thought we would tour again, Paul came along by chance and we seemed to have a chemistry. Paul is just such a great singer. He's not trying to be Freddie." Queen received the inaugural
VH1 Rock Honors at the
Mandalay Bay Events Center in
Las Vegas, Nevada, on 25 May 2006.
Foo Fighters performed "
Tie Your Mother Down" to open the ceremony before being joined on stage by May, Taylor, and Rodgers, who played a selection of Queen hits. , Ukraine, 12 September 2008 Queen + Paul Rodgers performed at the
Nelson Mandela 90th Birthday Tribute held in
Hyde Park, London on 27 June 2008, to commemorate Mandela's ninetieth birthday, and again promote awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The first Queen + Paul Rodgers album, titled
The Cosmos Rocks, was released in Europe on 12 September 2008 and in the US on 28 October 2008. the concert was
released on DVD. Having completed the first leg of the European tour, which saw the band play 15 sold-out dates across nine countries, the UK leg of the tour sold out within 90 minutes of going on sale and included three London dates, the first of which was
the O2 Arena on 13 October. The last leg of the tour was in South America, and included a sold-out concert at
José Amalfitani Stadium, Buenos Aires. Rodgers did not rule out the possibility of working with Queen again.
2009–2011: Departure from EMI, 40th anniversary On 20 May 2009, May and Taylor performed "We Are the Champions" live on the season finale of
American Idol with winner
Kris Allen and runner-up
Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet. A new greatest hits compilation
Absolute Greatest was released on 16 November and peaked at number 3 in the UK. It contains 20 of Queen's hits spanning their career and was released in four different formats: single disc, double disc (with commentary), double disc with feature book, and a
vinyl record. Before its release, Queen ran an online competition to guess the track listing as a promotion for the album. On 15 November 2009, May and Taylor performed "Bohemian Rhapsody" live on the British TV show
The X Factor alongside the finalists. On 20 August 2010, Queen's manager
Jim Beach announced that the band had signed a new contract with
Universal Music Group after almost 40 years with
EMI. On 22 September, May confirmed that the band's new deal was with
Island Records, a subsidiary of Universal.
Hollywood Records remained as the group's label and owner of recorded-music rights in the US and Canada. For the first time since the late 1980s, Queen's catalogue now has the same distributor worldwide, as Universal distributes for both the Island and Hollywood labels (for a time in the late 1980s, Queen was on EMI-owned
Capitol Records in the US). On 14 March 2011, the band's 40th anniversary, Queen's first five albums were re-released in the UK and some other territories as remastered deluxe editions; the US versions were released on 17 May. The second five albums of Queen's back catalogue were released worldwide on 27 June, and on 27 September in the US and Canada. The final five were released in the UK on 5 September. In May 2011,
Jane's Addiction vocalist
Perry Farrell said that Queen were scouting their live bassist
Chris Chaney to join the band. In the same month, Paul Rodgers stated he might tour with Queen again in the future. At the 2011
Broadcast Music, Incorporated (BMI) Awards held in London on 4 October, Queen received the BMI Icon Award for their airplay success in the US. At the
2011 MTV Europe Music Awards on 6 November, Queen received the
Global Icon Award, which
Katy Perry presented to Brian May. The collaboration received a positive response from fans and critics, resulting in speculation about future projects together.
2011–present: Queen + Adam Lambert, Queen Forever concert at the
TD Garden, Boston in July 2014 On 25 and 26 April, May and Taylor appeared on the eleventh series of
American Idol at the
Nokia Theatre, Los Angeles, performing a Queen medley with the six finalists on the first show, and the following day performed "
Somebody to Love" with the 'Queen Extravaganza' band. Queen were scheduled to headline
Sonisphere at
Knebworth on 7 July 2012 with Adam Lambert before the festival was cancelled. Queen said that they were looking to find another venue. Queen + Adam Lambert played two shows at the
Hammersmith Apollo, London on 11 and 12 July 2012. Both shows sold out within 24 hours of tickets going on sale. A third London date was scheduled for 14 July. On 30 June, Queen + Lambert performed in
Kyiv, Ukraine at a joint concert with
Elton John for the Elena Pinchuk ANTIAIDS Foundation. Queen also performed with Lambert on 3 July 2012 at Moscow's
Olympic Stadium, and on 7 July 2012 at the
Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland. " On 12 August 2012, Queen performed at the
closing ceremony of the
2012 Summer Olympics in London. The performance at London's
Olympic Stadium opened with a remastered video clip of Mercury on stage performing his
call and response routine during their 1986 concert at Wembley Stadium. On 20 September 2013, Queen + Adam Lambert performed at the
iHeartRadio Music Festival at the
MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Queen + Adam Lambert toured North America in 2014 and Australia and New Zealand in August and September 2014. In an interview with
Rolling Stone, May and Taylor said that although the tour with Lambert is a limited thing, they are open to him becoming an official member, and cutting new material with him. In November 2014 Queen released a new album
Queen Forever. The album is largely a compilation of previously released material but features three new tracks featuring vocals from Mercury with backing added by the surviving members of Queen. One new track, "
There Must Be More to Life Than This", is a duet between Mercury and Michael Jackson. Queen + Adam Lambert performed in
Central Hall, Westminster, at the
Big Ben New Year concert on New Year's Eve 2014 and New Year's Day 2015. In 2016, the group embarked across Europe and Asia on the
Queen + Adam Lambert 2016 Summer Festival Tour. This included closing the
Isle of Wight Festival in England on 12 June where they performed "
Who Wants to Live Forever" as a tribute to the victims of the
mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida earlier that day. On 12 September they performed at the
Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv, Israel for the first time in front of 58,000 people. As part of the
Queen + Adam Lambert Tour 2017–2018, the band toured North America in mid-2017, Europe in late 2017, then played Australia and New Zealand in February and March 2018. On 24 February 2019, Queen + Adam Lambert opened the
91st Academy Awards ceremony held at the
Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. In July 2019 they embarked on the North American leg of
The Rhapsody Tour, with the dates sold out in April. They toured Japan and South Korea in January 2020 followed by Australia and New Zealand the following month. On 16 February the band reprised their Live Aid set for the first time in 35 years at the
Fire Fight Australia concert at
ANZ Stadium in Sydney to raise money for the
2019–20 Australian bushfire crisis. Because Queen were not able to tour due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, they released a live album with Adam Lambert on 2 October 2020. The song collection, titled
Live Around the World, contains highlights selected by the band members from over 200 shows throughout their history. It marked their first live album with Lambert who, as of 2020, has played 218 shows with the band. On 31 December 2020, Queen performed on the Japanese New Year's Eve television special
Kōhaku with composer
Yoshiki and vocalist
Sarah Brightman. In 2021, Queen received the
Japan Gold Disc Award for the fourth time (having previously won it in 2005, 2019 and 2020) as the most popular Western act in Japan. On 4 June 2022, Queen + Adam Lambert opened the
Platinum Party at the Palace outside Buckingham Palace to mark the Queen's
Platinum Jubilee. Performing a three-song set, they opened with "We Will Rock You" which had been introduced in a comedy segment where Queen Elizabeth II and
Paddington Bear tapped their tea cups to the beat of the song. A previously unheard Queen song with Mercury's vocals, "
Face It Alone", recorded over thirty years previously and originally thought "unsalvageable" by May and Taylor, was released on 13 October 2022; five more songs — "You Know You Belong to Me", "When Love Breaks Up", "Dog With a Bone", "Water", and "I Guess We're Falling Out" — were released on 18 November 2022 as part of ''The Miracle Collector's Edition'' box set. On 19 June 2024, it was reported that
Sony Music would acquire Queen's catalogue for approximately
£1 billion (around $1.27 billion). Under the deal, Sony would acquire the publishing and recording rights to the entire Queen catalogue outside of the US and Canada. Similarly, the group's distribution deal, which is currently with Universal, will go to Sony in all territories outside the US and Canada when it expires in 2026 or 2027. Disney's
Hollywood Records will continue to retain the
recorded-music rights to Queen's catalogue in the US and Canada in perpetuity. On 13 September 2025, May and Taylor performed "Bohemian Rhapsody" at the
Last Night of the Proms in celebration of the song's fiftieth anniversary, accompanied by the
BBC Symphony Orchestra and with theatrical tenor Sam Oladeinde providing the lead vocal. ==Music style and influences==