FREDDIE Mercury, the flamboyant Queen frontman regarded as one of the greatest singers of all time, will be honoured with a statue in Barcelona, the city’s mayor has said.
Speaking during a Catalunya Radio podcast to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, mayor Jaume Collboni said Barcelona owed the legendary British vocalist a ‘pending debt’ thanks to ‘music that inspired an entire generation’.
The monument, set to be installed in the recently-renovated Placa de les Glories, will pay tribute to Mercury and Montserrat Caballe, the Barcelona-born soprano with whom he collaborated to produce Barcelona, the 1988 album, and its spine-tingling eponymous single.
Despite Mercury’s death in 1991, the song became the de facto musical anthem of the 1992 Summer Olympics, held in the Catalan capital.
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The song was also performed by Caballe prior to the start of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich, held at FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou ground.
Caballe, widely considered to be one of the greatest operatic sopranos of her generation, was asked by organisers of the Olympics to produce a song for the Games, to be held in her home city.
She asked Mercury, a good friend, to collaborate on the project and the pair subsequently produced Barcelona, a crossover rock and opera single that hit a peak position of No.2 on the UK Singles Chart.
They also developed an eight-song album – the final album recorded by Mercury outside of Queen.
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