(Credits: Far Out / Carol Lee / Alamy)
Fri 19 December 2025 10:25, UK
“What will I be doing in 20 years’ time? I’ll be dead, darling! Are you crazy?” – Freddie Mercury
To select one’s own songs to be played at one’s funeral is a morbid fascination for those afflicted with a lifelong love of music. Some like the thought of a big ballad to act as their swan song, while others would prefer to share a laugh with those in attendance. For a singer and performer as marvellous as Freddie Mercury, it must have been an arduous process, especially because of his knowledge of the event’s impending arrival.
During the recording of Queen’s 14th and final album, Innuendo, Freddie Mercury was three years on from his AIDS diagnosis. However, the singer was as virile as ever, at least on the surface. Defiant to remain as upbeat as possible, he strove to exhibit the same joie de vivre that had made him so beloved throughout his life. This sanguine approach to hardship is something that soars on the album, as it did during that period for everyone around him.
The tale of the fitting anthem ‘The Show Must Go On’ forms the perfect tableau of this fortitude. As his bandmate Brian May recalls, by this stage in the recording process, the virus and effects of the radiation treatment used to fight it had weakened Freddie to the point of being seriously ill and almost bedridden. But he was not to be deterred.
May had expressed concerns that he thought Mercury was too ill to perform and that the recording session should be scrapped. However, Mercury picked himself up off the floor and, as May recalls: “I said, ‘Fred, I don’t know if this is going to be possible to sing.’ And he went, ‘I’ll fucking do it, darling’—vodka down—and went in and killed it, completely lacerated that vocal.” Knowing he was probably only capable of a single take, the jocular frontman poured all of his might and a serving of vodka into a performance that seemed all-encompassing of the life he lived and the eternally upbeat way he lived it.
Freddie Mercury, leather-clad and in his pomp. (Credits: Far Out / Carl Lender)
Shortly afterwards, the frontman passed away. He had been suffering in silence, but in his final 24 hours, he boldly made a press release declaring that he was indeed suffering from AIDS. At a time when the illness was still shrouded in conservative ignorance, he faced the vitriol of the press even in his last moments to make a statement that sought to raise awareness. “The time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease,” he said.
24 hours after this acknowledgement, on November 24th, 1991, Freddie Mercury passed away surrounded by close friends at a bedside vigil. His lifetime friend and former girlfriend, Mary Austin, received the bulk of his fortune and is the only person who knows where his ashes remain. In the following days, fans poured out onto the streets surrounding his home and adorned it with flowers, notes and candles.
However, the man who loved lavish things had vowed to have a rather more quaint funeral than many might expect. Close friends and family gathered at the West London Crematorium for a 25-minute service presided over by two Parsee priests. A single red rose adorned his coffin as he was carried into the hall, ordained by the first of his favourite songs, Aretha Franklin’s version of ‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand’.
A further moment’s pause was later afforded, and ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ by Carole King was played while the congregation reflected. And finally, his favourite aria, ‘D’amour sull ali Rose’, composed by Giuseppe Verdi and sung by Montserrat Caballe, who performed alongside Mercury on his 1980 solo album, was played. The mix of playfulness and poignancy typified by these anthemic songs was fitting of the man himself: a tender trailblazer galvanised by rambunctious charisma.
To select a collection of songs to help represent your life after you have passed is a difficult feat, but there is perhaps no greater delivery of this task than the songs played at Mercury’s funeral. They are bold, tender and without reproach; they excel in delivery and performance while celebrating the enriching beauty of singing. It is a uniquely poised playloist that captures the man it was made for.
The songs played at Freddie Mercury’s funeral:‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand’ – Aretha Franklin‘You’ve Got a Friend’ – Carole King‘D’amour sull ali Rose’ – Montserrat Cabelle
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