(Credits: Far Out / Paul Williams)
Sat 20 December 2025 8:41, UK
With Queen, Brian May helped craft a collection of songs which are forever locked in the psyche of people across the globe. Despite the tragic passing of singer Freddie Mercury over 30 years ago, the group remain one of the most popular bands on the planet and their position at the top of the musical mountain is firmly cemented.
Despite being regarded as one of the most successful bands around, Queen rarely get much respect in the inner sanctum of music rock circles. The band were simply too popular, too theatrical and too successful to be considered truly beloved by a genre so hell bent on rebellion. But when you reframe Queen as a pop act, they may just have been the greatest ever. Their range of songs proves that.
While hits such as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’, ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘We Will Rock You’ are known word-for-word by almost all of the Western world, May prefers their lesser-appreciated material. However, as with many other artists, this is likely due to their best-known hits now being owned by the public because of their immense popularity.
Although when it comes to performing live, there’s no track May prefers to play rather than ‘We Will Rock You’, but that doesn’t translate it to being his favourite song by Queen. However, the feeling of sheer adulation runs through his body when they crank the hit to a packed-out arena in Manhattan or Munich is unparalled.
During a conversation on The One Show, May said: “I still love playing them all, I have to be honest. I would have to say ‘We Will Rock You’. Especially as this is the moment when we’re relaunching the musical that is named after that song. It always gives me a good feeling.”
A dashing Freddie Mercury in his younger years. (Credits: Far Out / Elektra Records)
However, his favourite Queen song is ‘The Miracle’, which the band have never played live. As it’s a personal song written by Mercury shortly before his death, in all likelihood, the reason why they’ve refused to play it is because no other singer could do his words justice.
During a Q&A on the band’s YouTube channel, May disclosed: “I’m going to pick a song that not everybody knows out there, which is called ‘The Miracle’, which Freddie wrote that I always thought has a strange, unique magic to it. Especially because Freddie wrote it at a time when it was very hard for him to be optimistic, and it’s just very beautiful. I’ll go for that.”
Upon release in 1989, he told Hard ‘N’ Heavy of the optimistic track: “We got pasted to the wall for this in England. Everybody hated it for some reason.” The track is rich in sentiment and, perhaps more importantly, optimisim. For a nation so deeply entrenched in the societal norm of stiffening the sinews of your upper lip and simply pushing onward through the drudgery of normal life, such a motif in a track was seemingly a step too far.
The track was too gilded with hope to be considered realistic, and while escapism has often been a part of the national consciousness, in truth, Britain loves to submerge itself in normality. “It’s very uncool to be idealistic in Britain, I suppose,” explained May. “They said, ‘How can they talk about peace,’ and all that sort of stuff, then of course, China happened and everything. It seems very relevant to us.”
Meanwhile, drummer Roger Taylor added: “In England ‘idealism’ is ‘naivety,’ which is wrong, it’s not. There’s nothing wrong with idealism. Nick Lowe wrote that great song, great title – ‘What’s so bad about peace, love and understanding,’ yeah, and what is so bad about.”
Although Mercury knew his life was coming to a tragic end, he still felt a sense of hopefulness about the world and refused to let his illness turn him bitter. For that reason, it holds a special place in May’s heart as it offers him a poignant reminder of his late friend and his infectious personality.
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