{"id":184411,"date":"2026-04-03T12:21:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184411\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:21:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:21:27","slug":"queen-in-budapest-helping-to-tear-down-the-iron-curtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/184411\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen in Budapest: Helping to tear down the Iron Curtain"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 27 July 1986 Queen<\/a> played what their record label EMI called \u201cthe first stadium rock gig behind the Iron Curtain\u201d \u2013 at the N\u00e9pstadion in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.<\/p>\n

Other rock acts, including Elton John<\/a>, Iron Maiden<\/a> and Dire Straits<\/a>, had played in Hungary before, but Queen were the first to perform at the huge open-air \u2018People\u2019s Stadium\u2019.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe like going places where it\u2019s a challenge,\u201d explained guitarist Brian May<\/a>. Unusually for Queen, they were even prepared to lose money on the venture. \u201cWe\u2019re doing it for a tremendous sense of job satisfaction,\u201d claimed drummer Roger Taylor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The concert was scheduled in the second half of Queen\u2019s Magic tour, ahead of shows in France and Spain. Both the gig and Queen\u2019s time in Budapest were filmed for the following year\u2019s Magic: Queen In Budapest concert movie and documentary.<\/p>\n

The British and Hungarian governments regarded the show as building a cultural bridge between East and West. The ruling Communist party, under Prime Minister Gy\u00f6rgy L\u00e1z\u00e1r, even announced a \u201clenient restriction on audience behaviour\u201d at the concert. This meant clapping was permitted, but no smoking or drinking.<\/p>\n

Not everyone was happy. The president of the 5000-strong Hungarian wing of the Queen Fan Club claimed his members had acquired just 100 tickets for the 80,000-ticket event. \u201cQueen only want the money now,\u201d he complained.<\/p>\n

Queen made their arrival into Budapest on a hydrofoil along the River Danube. Once they\u2019d embarked, they were whisked past fans, newspaper reporters and TV crews and into a reception at the British embassy. Freddie, a man who once said \u201cI believe in leaving politics to the chaps that are paid to the job, dear,\u201d was uncomfortable mingling with the various dignitaries, and was overheard saying he\u2019d \u201crather go shopping\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Queen\u2019s PRs were keen to get as much publicity for the event as possible. But the Fleet Street journalists and NME, now Classic Rock writer David Quantick flown in to cover the historic occasion, were not permitted an interview with Mercury. Instead, they had to make do with a few of his choice bon mots during dinner that evening.<\/p>\n

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\"Freddie\n<\/p>\n

Freddie Mercury onstage, 1986 (Image credit: Ilpo Musto\/Alamy)<\/p>\n

Halfway through the meal, Quantick recalled Mercury leaning across the table to ask Roger Taylor\u2019s very drunk Hungarian dining companion how big her vagina was (although \u2018vagina\u2019 was not the word used) \u2013 and \u201ccan you get it over your head, dear?\u201d This caused much consternation with the interpreter, before Taylor made the singer apologise.<\/p>\n

The following day\u2019s show was spectacular. Queen were old hands at playing stadiums, and Mercury worked every inch of the 60,000-square-foot stage. Eighty thousand people watched inside the stadium while a further 45,000 ticketless fans, some who had travelled from as far as Warsaw and Odessa, congregated outside to listen.<\/p>\n

But conscious of the armed soldiers positioned around the arena, the audience were unsure how to react. Having already played the big hits Under Pressure and Another One Bites The Dust to a slightly muted response, Queen\u2019s big breakthrough came when Mercury and May performed the traditional folk song, Tavaszi Sz\u00e9l Vizet \u00c1raszt (translated as Wind, Water, Spring, Flood).<\/p>\n

Queen – Tavaszi Sz\u00e9l Vizet \u00c1raszt (Live In Budapest 1986) – YouTube
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Mercury had the lyrics written phonetically on his hand, and disguised the \u2018crib sheet\u2019 by extravagantly flicking his fingers to sneak a look. But it worked. \u201cThe reaction at that point was fucking deafening,\u201d said May.<\/p>\n

Queen left Hungary as champions. Before they departed, a journalist asked Mercury if they would ever return. \u201cIf I\u2019m still alive,\u201d he replied. What nobody else, including his bandmates, knew then was that he had contracted the AIDS virus and that the Magic tour would be his last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 27 July 1986 Queen played what their record label EMI called \u201cthe first stadium rock gig behind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-184411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}