In July of 1985 a benefit concert called Live Aid was held in two locations simultaneously and broadcasted all over the world to raise funds for the Ethiopian famine. Even after all these years, Queen’s performance at Wembley Stadium is still considered to be one of the greatest rock performances of all time. Freddie Mercury captivated every single one of the 72,000 people in the audience for his 22-minute performance and ensured that they felt included in the performance. One obvious way in which he involved the audience was to lead them in various refrains, singing notes and encouraging them to sing it back. In this mini-ethnography I want to focus on how he engaged the fans throughout the second song, called “Radio Ga Ga.”
Freddie had just finished singing a shortened version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” and was handed a microphone with the top half of a mic stand still attached. The instrumentalists broke out in “Radio Ga Ga” and Freddie danced and jumped across the stage, maintaining eye contact with the audience and smiling. Once he started singing, he planted his feet and tapped his foot to the beat. He gestured out towards the audience on the first beat of each measure he sang, and you could see people in the crowd mimicking his movements. Freddie moved a lot less whenever he sang and would take the time to move across the stage during the breaks in his singing.
Once we reach the chorus, he yells out “everybody” to the audience to join in and also clapped in order to encourage further engagement. From 1:37-1:47 in the video, it was fascinating to watch a large majority of the crowd moving in sync with Freddie, clapping and throwing their hands in the air. This was all led and encouraged by Freddie standing tall in front of the audience. For the rest of the performance he mostly repeated the same movements and patterns from the first portion of the show, but the audience was still very much engaged.
Part of the reason the audience was so enamored was because Queen had taken a hiatus from recording and this was the first performance they played together in some time. They took this time to show the world what they were capable of and to redeem themselves for the past few years. In addition, Freddie was known for his flamboyant style, but he came out in only a tank top, jeans, and a studded arm band. It was unusual to see him wearing something so subdued, yet his energy was far from subdued. He was a master at showmanship, from his voice to his presence to his humor to his musicality. Freddie was truly a master in engaging the audience with his magnetic personality and the various methods described above that helped to make his fans feel included.
Should I do this project again, it would be amazing to analyze the entire performance to observe other ways he encouraged engagement. It would also be beneficial to do a more in-depth analysis of the history and how it contributed to the performance that day. Lastly, it would be very interesting to hear about the experience from someone who was actually present in the audience and their views on Freddie’s showmanship.
Works Cited
Rock, Classic. “Queen at Live Aid: the Real Story of How One Band Made Rock History.” Classic Rock Magazine, Louder, 12 Nov. 2018, www.loudersound.com/features/queen-at-live-aid-the-real-story-of-how-one-band-made-rock-history.
Ryan, Patrick. “35 Years Later, Queen’s Live Aid Show Is Still One of the Greatest Concerts Ever.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 14 July 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2020/07/13/live-aid-35th-anniversary-queen-freddie-mercury/5419839002/.
