Carrying on the Legacy of Freddie Mercury

By Alyssa Lovacchini

Although the concept of philanthropic performances has been around for centuries, the movement of benefit concerts picked up in the later half of the twentieth century with the first one being just over fifty years ago. In 1971 performers George Harrison and Ravi Shankar organized the first large-scale concert in order to raise funds for Bangladesh. This concert was the spark for countless other benefit concerts to be organized over the next few decades including the famous Live Aid.

Well known to this day, Live Aid was one of the biggest benefit concerts in history with a concert on each side of the Atlantic, one in London and one in Philadelphia, put on in order to raise money for the famine in Africa. With countless popular artists such as Madonna, U2, David Bowie, and Queen the concert ended up raising $127 million as well as persuading numerous “nations to donate surplus grain supplies” (Atkins).

However, it was Queen’s performance that has stuck with individuals throughout the world for years. The group's performance “stole the show” as Elton John told lead singer Freddie Mercury after Queen’s performance, with just a few of their most popular songs. The bands hits along with Mercury’s engaging persona pulled the 72,000 individuals present in the audience into an improvised stadium wide sing along which later became “the note heard around the world.”

It was for this very reason that Mercury’s bandmates decided to hold a benefit concert after Mercury’s passing. In honor of their late bandmate who passed away due to complications with AIDS, the surviving members of Queen performed at Wembley stadium, the same place they performed seven years earlier, to raise awareness for the disease. The 1992 concert with performances from Metallica, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses, and Queen was seen by one billion people throughout 76 countries. Even with varying artists such as David Bowie, Elton John, and George Michael being stand-in singers for Queen’s performance, the band's performance put Mercury on the stage one last time, in front of “the whole world” where he belongs (Chilton).

The Freddie Mercury tribute concert not only raised awareness and funds for the fight against AIDS, but also continued the legacy of an important figure in pop culture. Although Mercury was not diagnosed with the disease until 1987, years after its first appearance in the United States, and he did not notify the world of his diagnosis until right before his death in 1991, Mercury’s condition became well known due to his popularity and influence, easily making him one of the most well known celebrities with the disease. Carrying on his personal legacy prevents Mercury from becoming just another individual lost to AIDS, another number to add to the statistics and rather a reminder of the huge impact AIDS has had on the world.

Sources

Atkins, Jamie. “The Biggest Benefit Concerts In History.” UDiscover Music, 9 Nov. 2021, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/biggest-benefit-concerts-history/

“Benefit Concert.” Wikipedia, 13 Mar. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benefit_concert&oldid=1076925773.

Chakhnashvili Paata. Queen - We Are the Champions (Live Aid, Wembley Stadium, 1985). 2014. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPKlrRwJB8A.

Chilton, Martin. “Queen at Live Aid: How Rock’s Royalty Stole The Show.” UDiscover Music, 8 Sept. 2021, https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/queen-live-aid-concert-performance/.

Live Aid. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Live Aid 1985). 2019. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbvyNnw8Qjg.

“The Truth About Freddie Mercury's Incredibly Complicated Life Is Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind.” E! Online, 5 Sept. 2021,https://www.eonline.com/news/982514/the-truth-about-freddie-mercury-s-incredibly-complicated-life-is-guaranteed-to-blow-your-mind.

Article By Alyssa Iovacchini, Video and Graphic By Emily Myers