How Queen continue to honour Freddie Mercury after his death

19 June 2025, 18:00

The ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ band have found many ways to remember their lead singer in the past 30 years since his death.

When Freddie Mercury passed away on November 24, 1991, the world knew Queen would never be the same again.

However, the past 30 years have shown that the band's remaining members Brian May, Roger Taylor and (prior to his retirement) John Deacon would not allow Queen to come to an end following Freddie’s untimely death.

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Instead, the group have gone on to honour the ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ singer by releasing more music, regularly paying tribute to Freddie, and even arranging a concert and setting up a charity in his honour.

Here's a round up of all the ways Queen have continued to honour Freddie Mercury since his death...

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Greatest send-off in history

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness – funds from which would go to setting up the Mercury Phoenix Trust – was the first way in which Queen’s members honoured their lead singer after his death.

The show was announced by the group at the BRIT Awards 1992, with Brian telling audiences at the time: “We're incredibly proud of everything Freddie stood for and we feel like his spirit is definitely still with us.”

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Held on April 20 1992, the concert saw legends from across the world of music such as Elton John, Liza Minnelli and Tony Iommi join forces with Brian, Roger and John to perform tributes to Freddie.

The show led to iconic performances such as George Michael’s hugely moving performance of ‘Somebody to Love’ and David Bowie’s recitation of The Lord’s Prayer.

Queen & George Michael - Somebody To Love (Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert)

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert would be one of John Deacon’s final times performing live with Queen, but it is clear the private bassist felt positively about Queen continuing to perform following Freddie’s death.

Echoing one of Freddie’s last songs, he told crowds at the start of the show: “The show must go on.”

Final album

One year on from successfully producing the “biggest send-off in history” (over a billion people from around the world tuned in to join the 72,000 people gathered in Wembley for the tribute concert), Queen continued to honour Freddie’s legacy by beginning to produce his last songs for their final album, Made In Heaven.

Brian, Roger and John worked with vocal and piano recordings which Freddie had made prior to his death to release songs like ‘Mother Love’ and ‘You Don’t Fool Me’.

Queen - Mother Love

Made In Heaven (released November 1995) was an album created expressly to follow what appeared to be Freddie’s dying wish, as the band believed the lead singer had left them with so many recordings in the knowledge he would not survive long-enough to finish each track.

Returning to making the album wasn’t easy, however, and guitarist Brian May has admitted to initially feeling “reluctant” about returning due to his grief.

“Roger made the first inroads... and, of course, that was the trigger I needed because I hear what he’s done, and I go ‘No, no, no, don’t do it like this. You’ve got to do it like this!’” he admitted in the band’s Queen The Greatest series on YouTube.

Made In Heaven went on to become Queen’s fastest-selling and most successful studio album.

“There’s no replacing Freddie Mercury”

Following Made In Heaven, Queen went on a hiatus from releasing new music for another two years until they released ‘No-One But You (Only the Good Die Young)’ as a trio in January 1998.

The song was dedicated to Freddie, and all who die too soon.

Following this single's release, John went on to retire from performing altogether, and again Queen faced potentially coming to an end.

Queen - No One But You (Only The Good Die Young) (Official Video)

But in 2004, Brian and Roger started a new era to the group’s musical history, when they began performing as Queen + Paul Rogers and returned to touring the world with this new line-up.

Key to the arrangement was that Paul was not an attempt to replace Freddie, just give his own take on the songs to allow them to live on in live performances, and the same is true of the group’s later touring arrangement as Queen + Adam Lambert.

“There’s no replacing Freddie Mercury,” Adam told Music News in 2023. “It's impossible. Freddie Mercury is a mythic rock god...

“I look at [these performances] as a celebration and a tribute to him,” he added.

Queen + Adam Lambert - Somebody To Love (Live on X-Factor 2014)

In all of Queen’s concerts post-Freddie, the group have included videos and audio of Freddie to ensure he is still there for fans to remember him.

As Brian told Guitar World in 2023, they are sure – as is Freddie’s family – that the late singer would have wanted Queen to go on as they have done in his absence.

“I often have this conversation with Freddie’s sister, Kash... she completely gets what we’re doing.

“She says, ‘This is what Freddie would have wanted,’” he explained. “‘He would not want have wanted his songs or the band’s songs to become museum pieces. He would have wanted them to live.’

“And that’s what we’re doing,” Brian added. “We make the Queen legacy live.”

Achieving honours

Queen and its members have received many accolades and awards since Freddie died in 1991, leading the band to regularly pay tribute to their lead singer while accepting such honours.

When the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the group invited Freddie’s mother Jer Bulsara to accept his award on his behalf.

Queen accept award Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductions 2001

In 2023, Sir Brian May opened up about how he felt Freddie was with him as he received his knighthood from King Charles III.

“Freddie would love [this],” he told 5 News after the ceremony, adding: “I think if he’d been around he would have been honoured long ago and very rightly so.

“So we’re left here and have to deal with the honours ourselves I suppose,” he reflected. “But Freddie is always with us. We carry him with us in everything we do and he’s a very precious person, very precious spirit.”

Roger paid tribute to Freddie while accepting the band’s Polar Music Prize in 2025.

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John described how the band's incredible journey “came to a tragic halt with the loss of our dear Freddie,” a “hammer blow” which led eventually to John deciding he couldn’t go on.

But despite being “depleted to 50%” of their original line up, he described: “Brian and myself determined to keep our music alive,” and succeeded with the help of “incredible” singers such as Paul and Adam.

“We are so proud to be the recipients of this incredibly prestigious award,” he added, speaking for all four members of the band.