Queen to share Live Aid performance in honor of event’s 40th anniversary

With the 40th anniversary of Live Aid coming up on July 13, Queen is giving fans a chance to relive their electric set.

The band just announced that on the day of the anniversary they’ll be showing their set on their YouTube channel for 24 hours starting at 6:41 p.m. BST, the same time Queen took the stage at Wembley Stadium.

Live Aid, organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, took place at London’s Wembley Stadium and Philly’s John F. Kennedy Stadium. The benefit concerts, which raised more than $150 million for Ethiopian famine relief, were watched by about 2 billion people in more than 100 countries.

“Of the 16 hours of playing out on over 500 million TV sets, it was Queen’s magical 21-minute set which has come to epitomize Live Aid,” the band says in their announcement. “And when Freddie Mercury, at the climax of his famous call-and-response ‘Ay-oh’ segment, he struck what would become known as ‘The Note Heard Around the World.'”

Remembering the event, guitarist Brian May shares that Mercury “was our secret weapon,” explaining, “He was able to reach out to everybody in that stadium effortlessly, and I think it was really his night.”

Drummer Roger Taylor adds, “The whole day was one of those stand out wonderful days. A great credit to music which can move mountains if it has to! It’s beyond politics and politicians!”

Queen’s Live Aid set included performances of some of their biggest hits, including “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Radio Ga-Ga,” “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”

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