¿Queen?

Queen is a British rock band formed in 1970 in London by singer Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor and bassist John Deacon. Although the group has presented losses of two of its members (Mercury, died in 1991, and Deacon, retired in 1997), the remaining members, May and Taylor, continue working under the name Queen, so the band is still considered active.4

The group enjoyed a great success in the United Kingdom with albums like Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975). The latter attracted attention internationally, especially for the simple "Bohemian Rhapsody", and placed Queen in the foreground of the music scene. They had a significant impact in the United States at the end of the 1970s, already with a large repertoire of successes.5 At the artistic level, their musical diversity, their multi-layered arrangements and their vocal harmonies have been highlighted. It is considered a band of great influence in the development of hard rock and heavy metal, incorporating elements of glam rock, progressive rock, folk, blues and pop. It was one of the first musical groups to make their concerts very colorful shows through the use of smoke bombs, flashpots or innovative mobile light systems, in addition to promoting public participation in them, thus contributing to the rise of sand rock. 6 Critics have pointed to the charisma of Freddie Mercury as a fundamental part of their presentations.7 In this regard, performances such as the Live Aid in 1985 or the 1986 Wembley stadium concert as two of the best rock recitals in history.8 9 10 Although the quartet normally enjoyed great popularity and commercial success, at the time a part of the critics did not take them seriously, as for example in the publication Rolling Stone Jazz album was criticized calling it "fascist" .5

They have a total of fifteen studio albums, seven live albums and numerous compilations. Since the death of Mercury and Deacon's retirement from the musical world, May and Taylor have occasionally performed together at special events and television shows as guest musicians along with other artists. From 2004 to 2009, they worked with Paul Rodgers under the name of Queen + Paul Rodgers.11 12 13 14 With estimated sales of around 200 million albums, Queen is one of the most successful groups of all times; 15 his first compilation album, Greatest Hits (1981), is still the best selling album in the history of the United Kingdom with 6 million copies in this country.16 17 18 Queen was named the thirteenth best artist in hard rock of all time in a list compiled by VH1 (VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock List); 19 in addition, in a poll conducted by BBC Radio 2 in 2007, Queen was chosen as "the best British group of all times ».20

In 2018, the band received the "Lifetime Achievement Award", a Grammys award that pays homage to those artists who made contributions of great importance in the field of music recording throughout their lives.21