When Queen, George Michael, Seal and Liza Minelli sang a heartfelt tribute to Freddie...
14 December 2020, 17:03
The world's biggest artists came together on stage to sing a sensational version of 'We Are The Champions' in tribute to Freddie Mercury in what has been dubbed one of the greatest supergroup moments of all time.
Queen, George Michael, Seal and Liz Minelli were just some of the stars on stage for the closing performance of the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert singing a stunning ensemble version of 'We Are The Champions'.
The huge concert, held on Easter Monday April 20 1992, saw some of the world's greatest superstars come together for the Wembley Arena gig where Freddie's great friend Liza Minelli was invited to perform the very last song of the evening.
The Cabaret star took to the stage joined by Queen's Brian May on guitar, John Deacon on bass and Roger Taylor on drums and sang a spine-tingling rendition of the famous song, before being joined on stage by the rest of the performers from the evening's show.
In the video Liza can be seen leading the whole stadium in a rousing chorus of 'We Are The Champions' as everyone from Lisa Stansfield, Seal and George Michael to Paul Young, Axl Rose and Slash line up behind her, looking visibly moved as they sing.
At one point Liza makes her way across the stage to George Michael who give her a reassuring hug, before she makes her way back to the centre of the stage for the final verses of the song.
Taking to the microphone Liza shouts to the stadium and looks up to the sky: "Thanks Freddie! We just wanted to let you know we were thinking about you" and to the audience says: "Stay safe!"
The stars the all embrace one another, before Roger Taylor takes to the microphone to say the final words of the night: "Goodnight Freddie, we love you!"
The tribute concert was broadcast on television and radio to 76 countries around the world and with an audience of up to one billion, has been long considered one of the greatest concerts in history and came just a few months after Freddie Mercury's untimely death from AIDS complications on November 124, 1991, aged just 45-years-old.
The night witnessed iconic performances from the likes of George Michael, Elton John, David Bowie and Annie Lennox and even saw Elizabeth Taylor take to the stage to give an AIDS prevention speech.
The night would also turn out ot be the last full-length concert John Deacon would perform with Queen before he left the band in 1997.
Many stories have emerged in the years about the night of the concert, but none quite as moving as the battle George Michael said he had been going through on the famous night.
George later admitted that in front of a crowd of 72,000 Queen fans, he was really just singing to one person in the audience - Anselmo Feleppa, his secret love who had just been diagnosed with AIDS, and who would sadly go on to die in the same manner as Freddie Mercury..
In a 2016 documentary Freedom, a film about the star's life produced by George Michael before his death in 2016, the singer said of that day at Wembley: "The performance most well known in my career was sung to my lover who was dying.”
Liza Minnelli+Queen We Are The Champions and God Save The Queen - Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert
The 'Careless Whisper' star sang Queen's 'Somebody To Love You' on the night of the 1992 concert, saying Anselmo's diagnosis was: "the darkest, most frightening time of my life”
“I just wanted to die inside. I was so overwhelmed by singing the songs of this man I had worshipped as a child, who had passed away in the same manner my first living partner was going to experience."
George - who had not yet come out about his sexuality to friends and family - revealed he put on a brave face to go on stage: “I went out there knowing I had to honour Freddie Mercury and I had to pray for Anselmo."
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