There are 70,000 expectant people inside Wembley Stadium in north-west London. The sun is shining and the air is boiling. It is only twelve o’clock in the morning and the audience does not really know what to expect, but in retrospect they will understand that they have been through something historical.
On July 13, 1985, the artist elite gathers in London and Philadelphia for Live Aid. A 16-hour live charity concert, to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia.
The lineup includes artists such as David Bowie, Madonna and Wham, but it is not one of their performances that will be talked about afterwards. It is a completely different band that unexpectedly steals the whole show, a band that many think is a bit passé.
Wearing a white tank top, tight stone-washed jeans and his characteristic mustache, Freddie Mercury and his bandmates in Queen strut onto the big stage. He’s nervous. Queen has played in countless huge arenas, but this time it is not their own loyal fans who stand in front of the stage. Freddie sprints to the black grand piano and when he plays the first notes of Bohemian Rhapsody, the sea of people explodes inside the arena.
During the next 20 minutes, he does not let go of the audience. In fact, he seems to be able to direct them to anything. And it’s not just the concertgoers inside Wembley Stadium who are enchanted by Freddie Mercury. Backstage stops all activity, and in front of TVs around the world, it is stated that no other band came near Queen this day.
And luckily it was. For the performance on Live Aid, people forget that Freddie Mercury and Queen were just a pariah in the whole music world the year before, after doing heavily criticized gigs in the apartheid state of South Africa.
P3 Music documentary about Freddie Mercury is about never apologizing for who you are, boundless musical collaborations and the 80’s AIDS epidemic.
The documentary is made by Joanna Korbutiak in 2021.
Producer: Hanna Frelin
Executive producer: Axel Winqvist
Technician: Fredrik Nilsson
P3 Music documentary is made by Tredje Statsmakten Media.
Audio clips in the documentary come from the documentaries Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender and Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story, the journalist David Wigg’s interviews (1984-87), videos of the films Rudi Dolezal and Hannes Rossacher, Live Aid 1985, Queen Live at Wembley 1986, Queen – Hyde Park 1976 and the youtube account RAMADHAN KHAMIS.