Brian May says that the legendary band Queen would be forced to add a trans musician, a musician of color, or a musician of a different sex if they were around today. He added that people should be able to “be separate and different.”
May’s comments came amidst him railing on the BRIT Awards for removing gender-specific award categories.
“Freddie [Mercury] came from Zanzibar, he wasn’t British, he wasn’t white as such – nobody cares, nobody ever, ever discussed it,” May told The Mirror. “He was a musician, he was our friend, he was our brother. We didn’t have to stop and think: ‘Ooh, now, should we work with him? Is he the right color? Is he the right sexual proclivity?’ None of that happened, and now I find it frightening that you have to be so calculating about everything.”
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He continued: “We would be forced to have people of different colors and different sexes and we would have to have a trans [person]. You know life doesn’t have to be like that. We can be separate and different.”
Moving forward, the BRIT Awards will be replacing best male solo artist, best female solo artist, best international male solo artist, and best international female solo artist with artist of the year, and international artist of the year.
Queen will be continuing their Rhapsody tour on May 27th, 2022.
[Via]