The music video of I want to break free was a parody of the northern British soap opera Coronation Street. During part of the video, the band members dressed in drag (as women), as similar characters found in that TV series at the time.
The video also depicted the band in a coal mine in their normal look, and it also features a ballet piece with the Royal Ballet, for which Freddie Mercury shaved his trademark moustache to portray Nijinsky (though he had kept it for the parody part of the video).
According to Brian May in an interview about Queen's Greatest Hits, the video ruined the band in America, where many people - unlike the case in the UK - didn't see the soap-opera connection and interpreted the video as an open declaration of transvestitism and Mercury’s homosexuality. (source: Wikipedia)
The video also depicted the band in a coal mine in their normal look, and it also features a ballet piece with the Royal Ballet, for which Freddie Mercury shaved his trademark moustache to portray Nijinsky (though he had kept it for the parody part of the video).
According to Brian May in an interview about Queen's Greatest Hits, the video ruined the band in America, where many people - unlike the case in the UK - didn't see the soap-opera connection and interpreted the video as an open declaration of transvestitism and Mercury’s homosexuality. (source: Wikipedia)
