Even after their big success in South America, and their rising fame in the United States, Queen still had its issues with record sales. Turns out some of their albums weren’t selling as well as their second and third ones.
The band decided to take a break, and each member started working on individual projects. Of course, the plan was always to regroup. This is when John Deacon wrote “I Want to Break Free” and Roger Taylor wrote “Radio Gaga”. The band had quickly climbed back to the top of the charts, and they were ready for a big comeback. But once again, something stopped them.
An unforgettable performance
Queen flew to Argentina in 1981 and gave one of the biggest performances in their career, to an audience of 100,000 people. Turns out, Freddie was a master when it came to entertaining large crowds. The way he carried the microphone everywhere on stage, and the way he danced, was something no one had ever seen before.
His stage performance dazzled audiences in Argentina in Brazil, and when they returned to the UK, they felt the sky was the limit. Shortly after, they traveled to Canada to record in one of the best studios in North America.
Mercury lived with ten cats
As if he wasn’t interesting enough already, Freddie was also an avid animal lover, especially cats. He had ten cats at home, which he treated like children. His first pair cats were Tom and Jerry, which he adopted when he was living with Mary Austin.
But he did have a favorite, a calico cat named Delilah. Mercury even wrote a song about her, appropriately called “Delilah”, which is featured in his “Innuendo” album. The cat was just as in love with Freddie, and stayed by his side until the day he passed away.
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.