Rhino Historic Tours: A Concert for Life

23 years ago today, some of the biggest music performers in the business joined forces and took the stage of Wembley Arena to celebrate the life and work of one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most famous frontmen while also raising awareness and funds for AIDS research.

When Freddie Mercury died on November 24, 1991 from bronchopneumonia caused as a result of AIDS, there weren’t many who’d been paying attention to Freddie’s appearance who were legitimately shocked by the news: he was a shadow of his former self by the end, putting a famous face on the epidemic and making millions more aware of the devastating disease than ever before. To celebrate Mercury’s work in the form of a charitable endeavor, his former Queen bandmates – John Deacon, Brian May, and Roger Taylor – decided to throw a last bash for Freddie, bringing aboard artists who’d either known him, played with him, or simply been influenced by him.

There were 72,000 tickets available. All of them sold out in three hours. No artists other than the aforementioned members of Queen had even been announced.

When the announcement was finally made, the guest list was just as epic as one might’ve expected for an artist of Freddie’s stature, including David Bowie, Roger Daltrey, Bob Geldof, Toni Iommi, Elton John, Annie Lennox, George Michael, Liza Minnelli, Robert Plant, Mick Ronson, Seal, Lisa Stanfield, and Paul Young, along with Extreme, James Hetfield of Metallica, Joe Elliott and Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Axl Rose and Slash of Guns N’ Roses, and…Spinal Tap? Yep, they were there, too. Truly, it was an all-star show.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, a.k.a. A Concert for Life, wasn’t without its performance flaws, but you’d be hard pressed to find as heartfelt a show anywhere this side of Live Aid. It was a tribute to a great singer resulting in money being made for a good cause: it doesn’t get much more worthwhile than that.

To celebrate the concert’s anniversary, we’ve put together a playlist that isn’t precisely what was played that evening, but we’ve tried to include the songs played by the artists that day when Spotify would cooperate, but you’ll still be walking away with a list filled with Freddie Mercury music no matter what, so we think you’ll enjoy it.