Barcelona (album)
| Barcelona | ||||||||||||||||
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| Studio album by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé | ||||||||||||||||
| Released | 10 October 1988 | |||||||||||||||
| Recorded | January 1987 – June 1988 | |||||||||||||||
| Studio | Townhouse and Mountain Studios | |||||||||||||||
| Genre | Classical crossover | |||||||||||||||
| Length | 39:56 | |||||||||||||||
| Language | English, Spanish, Japanese | |||||||||||||||
| Label | Polydor, Hollywood | |||||||||||||||
| Producer | Freddie Mercury, Mike Moran, David Richards 2012 reissue produced and orchestrated by Stuart Morley |
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| Freddie Mercury chronology | ||||||||||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| Entertainment Weekly | B |
Barcelona is the second solo album recorded by Freddie Mercury, frontman of popular British rock band Queen, and operatic soprano Montserrat Caballé. Released in 1988. It is the second and final solo album recorded by Mercury.
After Barcelona was selected to host the 1992 Summer Olympics, Mercury was approached to write a song as a theme for the forthcoming games. The idea was to create a duet with Caballé, as she is from the city. He had been a long-standing admirer of her and she in turn grew to respect his talents very highly. They decided to work on an album together, with Mercury and Mike Moran taking the creative lead as songwriters. Mercury and Moran made and sent her tapes of the music with Mercury singing in falsetto as a guide vocal for Montserrat's parts. As they rarely had an opening in their schedule to meet, her parts were recorded at another location.
A special edition of the album was released on 3 September 2012. It features a new version of the album with the previous instrumental tracks replaced with new, live symphonic orchestration and percussion rather than synthesizers and drum machines. The new edition also has a new unique album cover.
All tracks written by Freddie Mercury and Mike Moran, except where noted.
The song was composed and produced by Mike Moran and Freddie Mercury. The recording sessions include violins by Homi Kanga and Laurie Lewis, cello by Deborah Ann Johnston, horn by Barry Castle and percussion by Frank Ricotti. "Barcelona" was chosen to be the anthem of 1992 Olympics in Spain, but Mercury died less than seven months before the games. It was, however, featured at the opening ceremony, and it was used as the title music to the BBC's coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics. The music video was filmed at the world's largest nightclub, Ku, nowadays named Privilege in Ibiza.
Russell Watson covers it on his album The Voice with Shaun Ryder.
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Wikipedia