Queen Essentials

My 12-year-old autistic daughter, Haylee, loves Queen. "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" are her favourite songs. She will replay these two songs over and over again, clapping her hands and singing along. My daughter is my inspiration for the "Pride Playlist" Challenge.

A little bit of background. Queen is originally a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), Roger Taylor (drums, vocals) and John Deacon (bass). Their earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal. Still, the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works by incorporating different styles, such as arena rock and pop-rock. In August 1986, Mercury gave his last performance with Queen at Knebworth, England. In 1991, he died of bronchopneumonia—a complication of AIDS—and Deacon retired in 1997. Since 2004, May and Taylor have toured under the "Queen +" name with Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert.

I did listen to Queen growing up as well. I would hear "We Will Rock You" and "We Are the Champions" at sporting events, which many more generations to come will continue to listen to as well.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" Will also forever play at parties. I have never been to a wedding where that particular song did not play into the night. In 2004, "Bohemian Rhapsody" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It has appeared in numerous polls of the greatest songs in popular music, and Mercury's vocal performance was chosen as the greatest in rock history by readers of Rolling Stone. In December 2018, it became the most streamed song from the 20th century, and it had been downloaded or streamed over 1.6 billion times.

There were always clues about Mercury's private life in Queen's music for fans who wanted – and knew the gay scene – to spot them. On Queen's 1978 hit Don't Stop Me Now, Mercury sings that he wants "to make a supersonic woman of you" and "a supersonic man out of you." In the video, he wears a T-shirt from Mineshaft, a famous New York BDSM gay bar of the time. Even the band's name, Queen, can be seen as a winking allusion to its frontman's identity. Perhaps one of the most daring ways Mercury expressed his natural campness was Queen's 1984 video for the single "I Want to Break Free." He and his Queen bandmates dressed as female characters from the British soap opera Coronation Street. This decision damaged their career in the US. In the '80s, Mercury was known for his tight white vests and moustache – his take on the Castro Clone look originated in San Francisco's queer Castro district and became popular in the gay underground, which was less familiar to him mainstream music fans. It could be argued that Mercury was effectively hiding in plain sight. Indeed, he didn't let his massive fame stop him from visiting popular London gay venues like Heaven and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

Nearly 30 years after his death, the real Freddie Mercury remains cherished. He's not just a massive queer icon but a British national treasure. Whether Mercury would have liked these terms or not, it's hard not to respect what he achieved in his lifetime. In an era when homophobia and racism were far more prevalent than today, Freddie Mercury was the queer, South Asian frontman of the band who released one of rock's most iconic singles, Bohemian Rhapsody's best-selling album in UK chart history, Queen's Greatest Hits.

On my iPod, I have a playlist called "Queen Essentials." It contains the essential songs for all Queen fans. Haylee and I listen to this playlist in the car on our road trips to grandma and grandpa's (They live out of town). Also, randomly on any given night, having a dance party in the living room. Party on Queen fans!