Barcelona agrees to name street or square after Freddie Mercury

Barcelona City Council has agreed to speed up the procedures necessary in order to dedicate a public space in the city to former Queen singer Freddie Mercury. 

The council accepted a proposal on Friday from one of the opposition parties, Ciudadanos, to honor the musician by naming a street or square after him. 

'Barcelona' is one of Mercury's most famous songs, a duet he recorded with Catalan soprano Montserrat Caballé and which featured prominently in the 1992 Summer Olympics, after the former Queen front man had died in 1991. 

Ciudadanos said the singer deserved the tribute for giving the city relevance at a "world level" and said that he also contributed to giving a voice to people from different groups. 

The task of assigning a Barcelona street or square to Mercury will be left for the next mandate, as the current term is due to end soon with local elections set for the end of May. 

'Barcelona' was one of the last tracks Mercury recorded before his death in 1991.

The city was the site of his last ever public performance, in a concert at the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc in October 1988, as he was forced to stop touring and playing concerts in the final few years before his death.