Freddie Mercury Is Still Everywhere (13 Photos)

Freddie Mercury would have turned 80 on September 5.

From a lakefront monument in Switzerland to murals across Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, these thirteen public tributes often return to Mercury’s unmistakable stage imagery: the raised fist, the yellow jacket and the half microphone stand.

---

👑 Freddie Mercury Statue — By Irena Sedlecká in Montreux, Switzerland 🇨🇭

The three-meter bronze has faced Lake Geneva from Place du Marché since 1996. His jacket flares open, one fist is raised and the half microphone stand angles toward the water.

💡 Nerd Fact: Dave Clark introduced Sedlecká to Queen after she sculpted a bust of Laurence Olivier for the musical Time. The monument was inaugurated on November 25, 1996, with Mercury’s parents, Brian May, Roger Taylor and Montserrat Caballé present.

📷 Photo by Bernd Brägelmann, edited by Jacek Halicki, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

---

🪩 Freddie Mercury Mosaic — By Franco Notonica in Munich, Germany 🇩🇪

Notonica built the roughly five-by-four-foot portrait from thousands of Italian glass and gold tesserae for Hotel Deutsche Eiche. It reads as almost monochrome from a distance, but the glass tesserae shimmer in different colors as the light and viewing angle change.

💡 Nerd Fact: The backers initially planned a statue. The finished mosaic is fixed to an aluminum plate bolted to the façade, allowing it to be removed if needed.

📷 Photo by Felix Edelmann, CC0

🔗 Follow Franco Notonica on Instagram

---

🚻 Freddie Mercury at Holzplatz — By Jörg Solzbacher of Graphism in Munich, Germany 🇩🇪

Jörg Solzbacher’s portrait is one of three removable painted metal panels on a former public urinal at Holzplatz, close to one of Mercury’s old Munich addresses. The other two panels honor Albert Einstein and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

💡 Nerd Fact: The octagonal urinal is itself listed under monument number D-1-62-000-7885. It stood at Stachus from 1900, was moved to Holzplatz in 1950 and went out of use in the 1990s.

📷 Photo by Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0

🔗 Visit Graphism’s website

---

🎙️ Freddie Mercury — By Oriol Arumí with Sam Àlvarez in Almacelles, Spain 🇪🇸

Arumí and Sam Àlvarez painted the mural across an entire façade beside the public car park on Carrer de la Bassa del Molí. Mercury wears headphones and sings with his eyes closed into a studio microphone. The opening notes and lyrics of “Bohemian Rhapsody” continue across the wall.

💡 Nerd Fact: The multitracked “Bismillah” and “Scaramouche” passages in “Bohemian Rhapsody” were overdubbed so many times that the analog recording tapes became virtually transparent.

More: Freddie Mercury in Almacelles, Spain

🔗 Follow Oriol Arumí on Instagram

---

🌻 “Freddie! Early Summer Vibe” — By Herr Nilsson in Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪

Herr Nilsson gives Mercury a bouquet and a watering can, while the real daffodils below complete the scene. In his original post, the artist called it “Freddie! Early summer vibe in Stockholm.”

💡 Nerd Fact: Queen’s official history identifies Diana Moseley as the designer of Mercury’s military-style yellow jacket. He wore it at Wembley Stadium on July 11 and 12, 1986, during Queen’s final tour with Mercury.

More: Interview With Swedish Street Artist Herr Nilsson

🔗 Follow Herr Nilsson on Instagram

---

🐈 Freddie Mercury — By Lisa King in Adelaide, Australia 🇦🇺

In the circular portrait, Mercury wears tinted glasses and sits between two black cats, white flowers and butterflies. It fills the southern wall of an apartment building at 46–48 Hurtle Square.

💡 Nerd Fact: Mercury’s love of cats also appeared in his wardrobe. Sotheby’s documented a hand-painted waistcoat bearing portraits of six of his cats, worn in his final Queen video appearance in 1991.

📷 Photo by Briggs Jourdan via Street Art Cities, CC BY-SA 4.0

🔗 Follow Lisa King on Instagram

---

♛ Freddie Mercury — By Bruce Mahalski in Dunedin, New Zealand 🇳🇿

Mahalski painted Mercury in a crown and full royal robes. The seven-meter mural covers the side of a student flat at the corner of Queen and Park Streets.

💡 Nerd Fact: Mahalski was already trying to find the building’s owner because he wanted to paint the blank wall. Then owner Allan Morrison called him with a commission.

📷 Photo by StreetKiwi via Street Art Cities, CC BY-SA 4.0

🔗 Follow Bruce Mahalski on Instagram

---

✨ Freddie Mercury — By Kade Sarte in Albury, Australia 🇦🇺

The mural is almost entirely black and white, with gold light effects around Mercury. It stands on the ALL Music lane wall off Dean Street.

💡 Nerd Fact: Sarte had already painted Ray Charles, Pink and Slash for the ALL Music wall by May 2019. Mercury and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker were added later.

📷 Image via Street Art Cities, contributed by Virusfreak79, CC BY-SA 4.0

🔗 Follow Kade Sarte on Instagram

---

🎶 Freddie Mercury — In Buccinasco, Italy 🇮🇹

The mural covers an E-Distribuzione electrical substation on Via Guido Rossa: a full yellow-jacket figure beside an angular singing portrait, both against a bright blue background.

💡 Nerd Fact: The mural was unveiled as part of Buccinasco’s 2021 Festa della Musica. The municipal record credits Firly and Lucy, while project organizer We Run the Streets attributes the same wall to Fosk.

📷 Photo via We Run the Streets

---

🔥 “Who Wants to Live Forever” — By Being2art in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA 🇺🇸

Two stylized figures in yellow emerge from purple arcs and orange flames, while a jagged white line runs through a raised blue fist. Street Art Cities dates the mural to June 25, 2019, at 1111 Grecade Street.

💡 Nerd Fact: In a 2019 KPCW interview, Being2art explained that each series is treated as an album and each individual work as a song. In the artist description shared by Street Art Cities, this mural is called the first “single” from a Queen-inspired album.

📷 Image via Street Art Cities, contributed by Peggy Brutcher, CC BY-SA 4.0

🔗 Follow Being2art on Instagram

---

🎤 Freddie Mercury — By Jonas Never in Orlando, Florida, USA 🇺🇸

The mural is a close-up of Mercury mid-song, with one hand raised. The Orange Observer places it at Floyd’s 99 Barbershop, 842 North Mills Avenue.

💡 Nerd Fact: The mural was described as a tribute to the neighborhood’s LGBT community. The Orange Observer reported that Never completed the wall in about three days.

📷 Photo by Jacqueline Hadel

🔗 Follow Jonas Never on Instagram

---

🚲 “Freddie” — By Emmalene Blake in Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪

Blake’s 2018–2021 utility-box artwork near Seán O’Casey Bridge shows Mercury cycling through an imagined Phoenix Park in his yellow jacket. Dublin Canvas lists the title as simply Freddie.

💡 Nerd Fact: Roger Taylor recalled that the Tour de France came cycling by while Mercury watched, and he thought the sight triggered something in Mercury’s imagination.

📷 Photo via Dublin Canvas

🔗 Follow Emmalene Blake on Instagram

---

🎤 “I’m Mr. Mercury” — By Frank Styles at Wembley Park in London, England 🇬🇧

Styles created the 30-foot anamorphic portrait as four separate works before they were combined and applied across all 58 of Wembley Park’s Spanish Steps. From a yellow circle about 65 feet away, the fragments align into Mercury’s face; closer views reveal koi, lyrics and quotations.

💡 Nerd Fact: The koi refer to Mercury’s lifelong love of Japan and the Japanese garden at his London home. The winged figures nod to his Virgo sign and the Queen crest he designed.

📷 Photos by Chris Winter / Wembley Park via the original Instagram post

🔗 Follow Frank Styles on Instagram

---

Which one is your favorite?