Montserrat Caballé; Freddie Mercury; "Barcelona"; Mercury/Moran

In 1986 Freddie Mercury was interviewed on Barcelona television and said he was in Barcelona because he wanted to meet Montserrat Caballé. In 1987 the two met at the Ritz Hotel in Barcelona for lunch. He had already recorded two songs which he had written for Montserrat. He played these songs for her and they immediately agreed to record an album together. The rest of the afternoon was spent with Freddie & Montserrat singing at the piano in the garden room of the Ritz. The following Sunday, Montserrat surprised her audience (including Freddie) by performing one of his songs "Exercises in Free Love" as the final encore at her sold out Covent Garden recital. Over dinner at Freddies house that evening, Montserrat asked him to write a song about her home town Barcelona. The resulting song "Barcelona" was recorded in April 1987 and first performed in Ibiza on 29 May 1987;