Freddie MercuryImage via Vincent Louis/Dalle/INSTARimages.com
By
Teguan Harris
Published 40 minutes ago
Tehuan Harris is a news and features journalist at Collider, reporting and writing about all things music and reality TV (sometimes). She is a talented journalist and a natural storyteller who writes with curiosity and interest. After graduating from university, she jumped straight into journalism, with one goal in mind: to tell stories that matter.
Away from the newsroom, Teguan runs her own. She runs her own newsletters on Substack and Medium and recently became the Editor in Chief of her brand new Substack newsletter, Channel 25, which covers TV and movies. The T Word, a Substack newsletter that covers pop culture, trends, and society, was also launched in March (it's about time anyway).
Sign in to your Collider account
Summary
Generate a summary of this story
follow
Follow
followed
Followed
Like
Like
Thread
Log in
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
Try something different:
Show me the facts
Explain it like I’m 5
Give me a lighthearted recap
It has now been 34 years since one of the most iconic frontmen passed away. Queen’s Freddie Mercury passed at 45 years old, leaving the music world and fans in eternal mourning and grief. However, even near his death, he was still giving to the music community that worshiped him, even if he was too sick to sing.
In his final moments, Mercury still wrote songs, and among these songs, “Mother Love” is the final song that he had written and sung vocals on. He wrote “Mother Love” with Brian May, who had finished the song after Mercury succumbed to AIDs. “Mother Love” ended up being one of Queen’s most underrated tracks, and it is also their most tragic and emotional song.
"Mother Love" Has a Tragic Backstory
"Bohemian Rhapsody" Queen band members Freddie Mercury and Brian May.Image via Universal Music
“Mother Love” was written and recorded during Mercury’s final days. However, the real tragedy behind the song is that Mercury was too sick to continue recording the vocals, so May had to complete the final verse before Mercury. As May detailed on his website, “We got the last verse and he said, ‘I’m not up to this, and I need to go away and have a rest, I’ll come back and finish it off…’ and he never came back”.
It was a song that was a huge signal that Mercury was not only deathly ill, but also that he was closer to death than many realized. Even when hearing the song, it was clear that Mercury’s health was declining. His voice can be heard getting weaker as the song progresses, until May’s final verse. However, his illness did not stop him from giving fans the Mercury that they knew and loved. He was still singing like the great singer he was and had always been, which is the only thing his illness did not take from him.
Roger Taylor, Queen’s drummer, talked about Mercury’s vocals in the documentary Days of Our Lives. “I’m hearing [his voice] getting weaker,” Taylor said, “But I mean he still hits all the notes. There’s an absolutely spine-chilling note in the middle of ‘Mother Love’ (“out in the city, in the cold world outside, I don’t want pity, just a safe place to hide”) which is just a great bit of singing.”
Related
Freddie Mercury’s Obsession With Perfection Gave Us Queen’s Most Iconic Song of All Time — Which Took 7 Years to Make
The rock anthem that changed the world.
Posts By Teguan Harris May 26, 2025Freddie Mercury Knew His Fate When Writing "Mother Love" With Brian May
Freddie MercuryImage via Instar Images
May and Mercury wrote and recorded “Mother Love” between May 13th and 16th of 1991, just over six months before Mercury’s tragic death. They recorded the song after the Innuendo sessions, an album that was released earlier that year, in February. This was also the final album released while Mercury was alive.
The final song Mercury had written with May was recorded at their studio in Montreux, Switzerland, where Mercury wanted to be during his final months. On his website, May described how Mercury “wanted his life to be as normal as possible,” as they both knew that “there wasn’t much time left." “He obviously was in a lot of pain and discomfort. For him, the studio was an oasis, a place where life was just the same as it always had been," he said. "He loved making music; he lived for it.”
May discussed the writing process he and Mercury had, and inside the studio where the final song, on which Mercury can be heard, was recorded. He also mentioned how Mercury knew his time was coming. “Freddie at that time said, ‘Write me stuff..I know I don’t have very long; keep writing my words, keep giving me things I will sing, then you can do what you like with it afterward, you know; finish it off’, and so I was writing on scraps of paper these lines of ‘Mother Love’, and every time I gave him another line, he’d sing it, sing it again, and sing it again,” he said.
“He just kept saying, ‘Write me more. Write me stuff I want to just sing this and do it, and when I am gone, you can finish it off’. He had no fear, really.”
"Mother Love" is a Testament to Freddie Mercury’s Legacy
“Mother Love” was released in 1995, four years after Mercury’s tragic passing, as part of his posthumous album Made In Heaven, the band’s fifteenth and final studio album. The album was the perfect final goodbye to Mercury and a celebration of his talent and tenacity, as it pays tribute to Mercury. Snippets and samples of his voice and every single song Queen recorded can be heard in “Mother Love”, as it was sped up on a tape after being put together.
The song closes with a sample of a cover of “Goin Back”, written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, for which Mercury sang lead in 1972, shortly before the release of Queen’s debut album. As the song ends, a baby can be heard crying, which shows “Mother Love” is a retelling of Mercury’s life and achievements in reverse and also going back to the beginning of his life to keep retelling his story and to keep it alive. “Mother Love” is not only a testament to Mercury’s unforgettable legacy, but it is also a celebration of Mercury himself.
Related
The 10 Greatest Queen Songs Ever, Ranked
Galileo! (Galileo!)
Posts 10 By J.S. Gornael Jul 23, 2025 Follow Followed Like Share Facebook X WhatsApp Threads Bluesky LinkedIn Reddit Flipboard Copy link Email Close Thread Sign in to your Collider accountWe want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread below and remember to keep it respectful.
Be the first to post Images Attachment(s) Please respect our community guidelines. No links, inappropriate language, or spam.Your comment has not been saved
Send confirmation emailThis thread is open for discussion.
Be the first to post your thoughts.
- Terms
- Privacy
- Feedback
Nov 13, 2025
Beatles Legend Ringo Starr Wrote His First Song for the Iconic Band and It Flopped
5 hours ago
A Gilded Age Mystery Is Afoot in a Sneak Peek of 'The Artist' [Exclusive]
7 hours ago
Benedict Cumberbatch Knows When We'll See Doctor Strange in the MCU Again [Exclusive]
7 hours ago
3 Rock Songs That Need to Be On Your Playlist Thanksgiving Week
What To Watch
July 20, 2025
The 72 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
Trending Now
That Time Charlie Chaplin Was Nearly Murdered in an Attempt to Start a War
The Most Addictive Spy Thriller Show Ever Made Is Dominating a New Streaming Platform
One of the Best Sci-Fi Horror Shows You’ll Ever Watch Finally Drops a Long-Awaited Season 4 Update
