British rockers Queen will receive a Global Icon Award at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards, which will take place Nov. 6 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
“We are honored to be designated a global icon. We will do our best to be worthy,” said Queen’s guitarist Brian May in a press release issued on Wednesday.
In 2010, the first Global Icon Award was given to Bon Jovi during the 17th Annual MTV EMA. Queen will be the second band ever to accept the award during the show, which began in 1994.
Formed in 1971, bassist John Deacon, drummer Roger Taylor, May and lead singer Freddie Mercury signed their first record contract as Queen with EMI in 1972. The band’s first single, “Keep Yourself Alive,” was released in July 1973.
Queen II, released in 1974, included the band’s first hit single in the UK, “Seven Seas of Rhye.”
Later that year, Queen broke in the US with the hit “Killer Queen,” taken from the Sheer Heart Attack album.
Then in 1975, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was released as a single, which topped the UK charts and reached No. 9 in the US.
Queen then released a successful run of popular singles for the rest of the 70s on through the early 90s.
The “We Are the Champions”/ “We Will Rock You” medley became a staple at sports stadiums after its release in 1977, and the 1980s saw hit singles “Another One Bites the Dust,” “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” and “Radio Ga Ga.”
In February 1991, Queen released Innuendo, the band’s last studio album with Freddie Mercury. The title track topped the UK charts.
Then, in November 1991, Mercury died of AIDS, but Queen’s popularity endured as “Bohemian Rhapsody” appeared in the movie “Wayne’s World” in 1992. Re-released as a single, the song reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
Queen will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year by assembling its own tribute band through a YouTube contest where fans can submit a video to participate. Taylor plans to pick the winning band members himself.
“We can still do it, but I don’t really think I want to travel around the world anymore. This is a way of keeping our music alive and doing it to our standards,” Taylor told Rolling Stone in September.
