The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert

The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was held at London’s Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992 and was broadcast live in 76 countries around the globe. During the concert, Elizabeth took to the stage to pay tribute to Mercury, who had died of AIDS the previous November. She spoke of the urgency of the AIDS crisis worldwide, advocating for safe sex and avoiding sharing needles.

“We are here to tell the whole world that [Freddie] like others we have lost to AIDS, died before his time,” she said from the podium. “It needn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have happened. Please, let’s not let it happen again!”

Elizabeth was accompanied by her granddaughter, Naomi Wilding, for whom the experience, which she described as “electrifying,” made a lasting impression.

“I think it was the first time I ever witnessed my grandmother’s effect on people,” she recalled in 2018. “[It was] like being transported to another place, another level in time and space.”

“I felt deeply proud that she was my grandmother. That she was a leader.”