The Final Bow of Freddie Mercury: A Legacy of Brilliance, the Brit Awards Goodbye, and the Truth He Could Only Share at the End

It was his last public appearance. And maybe I knew it. Freddie Mercury was holding in his hands the award he had just received by Queen at the Brit Awards, on February 18, 1990, for his contribution to British music. He didn’t step to the front of the band – joined by Brian May on guitar, Roger Taylor on drums, and John Deacon on bass – as usual. The thanks were given by May, after the award’s presenter, Terry Ellis, president of the BPI (British Phonographic Industry), broke out in praise with members of the group and acknowledged they were in debt.

“They are four men, all college graduates, who celebrate 20 years working together this year… They have never really been fully recognized for the outstanding achievements of their impressive career. But tonight we’re going to make it right.”

At the gala that took place that night at the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End, Freddie Mercury was wearing heavy makeup to disguise the paleness of the disease he didn’t want to talk about until a day before his death. All the media, sensationalists and the mainstream, speculated that he had contracted Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), called at those times “pink plague,” thinking that it was a disease that only hit the gay community, who were accused of being responsible for its appearance.

Queen’s leader had suddenly lost weight, he looked weak, pale, and it was obvious that something bad was happening to him. Freddie Mercury was a frontman with a personality bursting with energy, explosive on stage, where he interacted with thousands of people. Until everything changed.

He began to hide from the media that were scratching into his private life, and they had already found something. It just wouldn’t come out of his own mouth. Queen was keeping a secret to avoid interviews, public appearances, and something more flashy: not touring to promote the release of their 1989 album, The Miracle. The last tour they did was the Magic Tour, to play the A Kind of Magic album. It ran in 1986 and featured the largest stage and lighting platforms they had in their career, plus a mega screen. On the two Wembley dates, which sold out in 6 hours, there were 15 cameras and a helicopter taking in aerial views of over 75,000 people who watched the show.

That night at the Brit Awards was a shadow of itself. He was wearing a crossover suit, celestial color, when he used to wear tights glued to his body, t-shirts that showed his arms marked by some bracelet. He wore vibrant colors like red or yellow. This time, to conceal his extreme thinness, he opted for that loose garment, which in turn revealed his mood.

Freddie Mercury had turned off. He had the absent look, surely gone in his thoughts. Whoever contracted the HIV virus lived it as a death sentence, because everyone ended up dying. There was no escape. Because in those times, he had no chance of saving himself. And they died alone in a hospital, because it was a stigmatizing disease.

The side effects of medication – zidovudine (AZT), an old cancer drug discovered to delay infections – led to nausea, vomiting, blood problems (anemia and neutropenia), and muscle weakness (myopathy). Some people who survived the disease at that time say they took about 18 pills. In internships, they learned how very young people were dying day by day, full of dreams and projects, like Freddie would have, at the peak of his career.

Queen’s leader took on a supporting role that night, while holding the award with a gladiator helmet and trident. He was somewhere else. He barely laughed when Brian May, after the thanks, got excited to slide in a joke, perhaps with the idea of decompressing the drama they kept silent.

“I’d like to give a special thank you to the British oil industry for this magnificent award in recognition of all the amount of vinyl we’ve recycled over the years,” the band’s astrophysicist said, and the audience celebrated. Finally, after Taylor and Deacon briefly greeted, Mercury took the microphone and simply said three words: “Thank you. Good night.”

The last thing he could say to his audience in what was the band’s last performance on a stage.

Following the presentation of the Brit Awards, there was a party where Freddie took photos with candles to celebrate 20 years of Queen, and with other music stars who had been nominated or awarded that night. The pictures show Freddie’s physical deterioration, but also the great affection and admiration of his friends in the atmosphere of music.

There are photos with David Gilmour, Rod Stewart, Liza Minnelli, and George Michael (1963–2016). The latter was one of the musicians who, after Freddie’s death, participated in the tribute they made to him in 1992 with a memorable Somebody To Love.

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness took place at Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992, just five months since the singer’s death. The goal of the recital, which gathered 72,000 attendees, was to fulfill one of Mercury’s requests: raise awareness about the existence of AIDS and raise funds for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the foundation created by the rest of the band after his death.

In May 1987, the media began stalking him after his former manager and lover, Paul Prenter, in an attitude of despise, sold intimate photos of the star when he had never left the closet. He had said that he had sex with more than 100 men and that his last two lovers had died of AIDS.

It was a bomb, as it was a time when homophobia reigned, and The Sun dosed it in different editions. All of this would have cost Paul Prenter about $100,000, according to Jim Hutton, the last partner of the Queen vocalist. Something for which he later showed regret — but the singer was not willing to forgive.

After the Brit Awards, the creator of Bohemian Rhapsody took shelter in his London home and continued to battle his illness. He worked until his strength gave out. In February 1991, their last album, Innuendo, was released.

The rumors kept feeding that Mercury missed the date that night. The advancement of the disease was evident, in addition to the efforts of the band to mask reality. The I’m Going Slightly Mad and These Are The Days Of Our Lives videos were recorded in black and white to disguise Freddie’s deterioration.

Freddie Mercury died in his bed, at his Kensington home in London, aged 45, surrounded by affection. His partner, hairdresser Jim Hutton, and his ex-girlfriend and best friend, Mary Austin — to whom he left half of his fortune — were by his side.

Days before his death, the leader of one of the most famous British bands of all time consulted with his representative, Jim Beach, about how to tell the world he was dying. He couldn’t just leave without saying anything. And so he told it, through the manager:

“Responding to the information and speculations that have appeared in the press about me for two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have tested positive for the virus and that I have AIDS. It’s time for my friends and fans all over the world to know the truth and I wish you all to join me, my doctors, and everyone who suffers from this terrible disease to fight against it.”

Within 24 hours of that announcement, on November 24, 1991, the artist died of bronchopneumonia, a complication generated by AIDS.

His funeral was an intimate ceremony, attended by only family and friends, no more than 35 people, and took place at West London Crematorium, inside Kensal Green Cemetery. It is still not clear what the fate of his ashes was. They are believed to have been scattered by Mary Austin on Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where Mercury spent part of his final years. Others believe they were cast in different theaters — or that they remain in his Kensington mansion.