can't go any higher than that
[Applause]
welcome to watch mojo and today we're
counting down
our picks for the top 10 freddie mercury
performances
[Music]
for this list we'll be looking at live
freddie mercury performances with queen
and taking into account the uniqueness
of the performance and its cultural
impact
i think we'll go with a little bohemian
rhapsody gentlemen good call
number 10 saturday night live ladies and
gentlemen
here is queen while it's true that
playing snl has been a common rite of
passage for pretty much any major band
active since 1975 queen's 1982
performance on the show is noteworthy
for two reasons
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it would turn out to be mercury's final
u.s performance with the band
and it was a stellar example of how well
the legendary front man can shine
even after he damaged his voice arguing
with his boyfriend
[Music]
[Applause]
singing under pressure without david
bowie as well as nailing a crazy little
thing called
love that's what we call grace under
pressure
and for those of you whose thoughts
jumped from snl to wayne's world
no they didn't play bohemian rhapsody
[Music]
number nine queen live in sydney part of
the charm of mercury's performance was
that he really loved to have fun with
the audience
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his lighthearted humor was on full
display when queen played sydney
australia in the second half of their
1985 the works tour
this included the front man pouring
water on the audience while telling them
they could beat him up afterwards
and pretending to play along with brian
may during the we will rock you guitar
solo
[Music]
charm aside this show also had its
quieter more emotional moments
and the fast-paced rock queen is known
for
number eight queen live in tokyo after
seven months of touring across the world
most performers would be phoning it in
by the end but
not freddie mercury
he brought us all to this show capping
off the hot space tour in tokorozawa
a suburb of tokyo mercury's voice
notably cracked in a few places and the
fact that it was january in japan
and they were playing an open-air
stadium likely didn't make things any
easier
but he and the band members still
delivered a stellar show
mercury even delivering some great vocal
solos
exhausted or not the members of queen
were clearly enjoying themselves as
evidenced by the way they rocked out
making for an all-around incredible
performance
[Music]
[Applause]
number seven queen at hyde park
just as queen was hitting the big time
in the summer of 1976
they played a free show in london's hyde
park organized by an
up-and-coming businessman named richard
branson you
may have heard of him with 150 000
fans present the event broke the london
record for concerts
and cemented mercury as a front man who
can work a huge crowd
it was originally supposed to be shown
on tv the following year
while that didn't happen low quality
footage thankfully exists
the band played their biggest hits at
the time including killer queen
stone cold crazy and the relatively new
bohemian rhapsody
which they split into three parts and
separated by other songs
six concert for the people of kampuchea
freddie mercury sure loved to rock out
for a cause in december 1979
paul mccartney and politician kurt
waldheim staged a series of concerts in
london's hammersmith odeon
to raise money for the victims of the
war in cambodia mccartney played with
his band wings
as did the who the clash elvis costello
and the pretenders
queen of course performed too and
brought the house down with a version of
now i'm here
it featured mercury in fine musical form
not to mention
shirtless
from the footage of this event available
today you can see just how masterfully
mercury could work the crowd
building them into a frenzy before
launching into a song
talk about charisma number five
barcelona featuring montserrat
mercury had one of those voices that got
people thinking he could have also
sang opera in 1987 he did the next best
thing
when he performed alongside opera star
monserrat caballeros
this is the only entry on our list that
doesn't feature the other members of
queen
but in their place mercury and kabale
are backed by a full
[Music]
orchestra
the lead single from their 1988
collaborative album by the same name
this song was written for the 1992
barcelona olympics
sadly mercury would not live to perform
it live at the event
but this 1987 performance is a testament
to just how epic that could have been
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number four queen live at earl's court
london
the two earl's court concerts in 1977
ended off queens a day at the races tour
and where noteworthy is the first time
the band used its crown-shaped
lighting rig
this is also where they started fully
embracing the fact that the audience
wanted to sing along with mercury and be
part of the show
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this realization would lead to the
creation of we will rock you and we are
the champions
and fully cement the band and mercury's
performance style for the rest of their
careers
these shows also featured a great
version of killer queen
number three queen live in rio it was
the first ever edition of the
long running rock and rio festival and
queen kept 400 000
and then 250 000 people partying through
the two nights in a row
literally their headlining set started
at 2 am
both nights but mercury clearly was not
tired
his energy was matched only by that of
the crowd which sang and clapped along
similarly showing no signs of fatigue
his costumes were as elaborate as ever
and in some cases unique to his
performance
his famous union jack cape even had the
brazilian flag on the back of it
now that's how you play to a local
audience number two
vocal improvisation
when queen played at london's wembley
stadium in 1986
they got enough great material to
release a double album but the part of
the show that really stood out wasn't
one of their hit songs
instead it was an improvised bit mercury
did between tunes
the front men led an audience in a vocal
colon response game for roughly two
minutes
it showcased not only mercury's vocal
range but also his ability to work a
room
even a huge room packed to the rafters
and do so without relying on the
well-crafted lyrics and melodies he's
famous for
this wasn't the only time mercury tried
something like this but
it was the biggest want more mojo
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[Music]
number one queen at live aid
[Applause]
holding your own when you're sharing a
stage with the likes of the rolling
stones and the who is not an easy task
but at live aid
mercury didn't just hold his own in
front of an estimated 72
000 people at wembley stadium and 1.9
billion watching around the world
he stole the show
[Music]
instead of playing just a few songs
queen packed condensed versions of six
of their biggest hits into the 21 minute
set
[Music]
the passion showmanship and top-notch
musical chops combine to make this not
only mercury's best performance
but one of the greatest rock
performances of all time
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