Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

 

 

Arts & Entertainment

Video: Google's Animated Birthday Tribute To Freddie Mercury


By

Jen Chung

Published Sep 5, 2011

Modified Sep 5, 2011


Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail


Never miss a story

 Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .


By

Jen Chung

Published Sep 5, 2011

Modified Sep 5, 2011


Share

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail


We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Google produced an extensive animated Google doodle (the longest was for Charlie Chaplin) with an exuberant one-minute thirty-eight-second piece for Freddie Mercury. The Queen frontman would have been 65 today.

According to NBC Bay Area, it took 3 months to create the work which is set to "Don't Stop Me Now." Jennifer Hom said, "Considering how colorful Freddie's career was, we wanted to create a doodle that was just as colorful." However, you may be wondering why you don't see it on the search page: CNET explains, "The Freddie Mercury doodle is live for most of the world on Monday but is being saved for Tuesday in America--in order not to make anyone see a gregarious side of life on the somber feast that is Labor Day."

On Google's blog, Queen guitarist Brian May writes, "Some people imagine Freddie as the fiery, difficult diva who required everyone around him to compromise. No. In our world, as four artists attempting to paint on the same canvas, Freddie was always the one who could find the compromise—the way to pull it through. If he found himself at odds with any one of us, he would quickly dispel the cloud with a generous gesture, a wisecrack or an impromptu present. I remember one morning after a particularly tense discussion he presented me with a cassette. He had been up most of the night compiling a collage of my guitar solos. 'I wanted you to hear them as I hear them, dear,' he said. 'They're all fab, so I made them into a symphony!'"

Tagged

animated

freddie mercury

google

google doodle

queen


Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Read more

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


MORE arts-entertainment

Inside a photographer's journey to visit every neighborhood in New York City

What do you see when you record the whole of the boroughs?

By

Sonia Rao

Published Oct 5, 2026


Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries

It's a busy month at the branches.

By

Alec Hamilton

Arts & Entertainment

Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries

It's a busy month at the branches.

By

Alec Hamilton


NYC music in October: The Strokes, a Blink-182 cover band, and Polish experimentalism

By

Hank Shteamer

Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.

By

Hannah Frishberg

In the mood for a pastoral autumn experience? Try Queens.

By

Elizabeth Shwe

and

James Ramsay


Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .