This week’s episode in the Finding Freddie podcast video series continues with the Making of Barcelona. Freddie Mercury famously teamed up with Spanish opera singer Montserrat Cabellé for the song and album of the same name during the late 1980s. And in the new mini-documentary, David Mallet – who directed the Barcelona music video – shared some fun and fascinating insights.
Mallet said: “Freddie was dead nervous to be doing anything with the great Montserrat Cabellé.
“I’ve never seen him like that, he was literally tiptoeing around.
“And then, of course, they had a good bottle of red wine together.
“And then, y’know, the earthiness came in and they were close mates.”
READ MORE: Queen’s Brian May performs emotional rendition of Freddie Mercury
Mallet also directed Freddie’s I was Born to Love You music video.
During the shoot, the singer’s hair almost caught on fire when they were filming the mirror sequence.
The filmmaker revealed: “I also remember with Freddie in front of those mirrors, I wanted to give him a halo.
“To give someone with black hair a halo is quite difficult.”
Mallet added: “And we put this sodding great light above his head and after about half an hour, his hair started smoking literally.
“Literally smoking!
“And I remember shouting, ‘Fred, get the hell out of there before you catch fire!’”
The Finding Freddie podcast video series is streaming on the Freddie Mercury Solo YouTube channel now.
