We Will Rock You - Queen

Queen backstage, 1982. (Look for Michael Jackson near the end of the video!)

QUEEN: Days of Our Lives - Complete Documentary

BBC The One Show 

Freddie Mercury’s mother, Jer Bulsara and sister, Kash Cooke, interviewed on The One Show by Chris Evans and Alex Jones, to mark Freddie’s 65th Birthday.. They were taken back to the house where they lived when the first came to England, which now bears a Blue Plaque, and talked about Freddie’s life in those days. Roger Taylor also appears in a short clip.

Google’s Freddie Mercury tribute

Google is celebrating what would have been the 65th birthday of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury with a “Google Doodle” animation that depicts the singer acting out the lyrics of the band’s 1979 single “Don’t Stop Me Now.” Mercury’s birthday was actually yesterday, but the company decided to hold off the animation in the United States until today so that people wouldn’t miss it because of Labor Day. The clip is only a minute and a half long, but it’s jam-packed with references to other Queen classics and guaranteed to make you miss the larger-than-life and one-of-a-kind rocker.

The doodle was designed by a team lead by Jennifer Hom, a 24-year-old graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. “We knew that we couldn’t have a regular illustration to celebrate his birthday,” she tells Rolling Stone. “We wanted to do something really extraordinary for him because his visual style is so unique. We couldn’t justify one of his costumes or one of his music videos, so we wanted to chronicle his career through all the different looks that he sported in his lifetime.”

Hom felt that Queen’s 1979 hit “Don’t Stop Me Now” was the perfect song to accompany the animation. “It has a locomotive rhythm to it,” she says. “And it’s just so energetic and lively and happy. Also, from an artistic standpoint it has great lyrical imagery. Some of the lines from the second verse contain a tiger, Lady Godiva and a race car. That’s a pretty good jumping off point to start storyboarding a music video.”

Some of the animation in the video is reminiscent of a 1980s Nintendo game. “I realized that the time Queen was performing was also the time of video games,” says Hom. “There was Super Nintendo and all these new platforms and they all had a very distinct look and they were all very adventurous. The scenes in the video that we wanted to capture were equally adventurous, so we thought it would make sense to use that style of animation.” 

Billy Corgan’s birthday message to Freddie Mercury.

Miss Piggy’s birthday message to Freddie Mercury.

Patrick Stump’s birthday message to Freddie Mercury.

Gerard Way’s birthday message to Freddie Mercury.

Taylor Hawkins’ birthday message to Freddie Mercury.

Katy Perry’s birthday message to Freddie Mercury.

FREDDIE MERCURY
OFFICIAL 65TH BIRTHDAY VIDEO 

A Google doodle tribute to artist, performer, and pioneer Freddie Mercury for his 65th birthday.

Don’t Stop Me Now - Queen