A closer look at the biggest achievements of Brian May. Awards, milestones, and records that define success.
Brian May is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, animal welfare activist, and astrophysicist. He is best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the rock band Queen, co-founding it with Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor. May's guitar skills and songwriting were integral to Queen's success, making them one of the most influential and popular bands of all time. Beyond music, he holds a PhD in astrophysics and is an advocate for animal rights.
After the Live Aid concert in 1985, Queen wrote the song "One Vision" together, with Brian May primarily contributing the music.
In 1985, Queen gave an acclaimed performance at Live Aid, solidifying their status as one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
In the aftermath of Freddie Mercury's death in November 1991, Brian May dealt with his grief by committing to work, including finishing his solo album, Back to the Light.
In 1996, the song "Too Much Love Will Kill You" won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically & Lyrically, which Brian May collaborated as a songwriter.
In 2001, Queen, including Brian May, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2005, Brian May was voted the seventh-greatest guitarist of all time in a Planet Rock poll.
In January 2007, readers of Guitar World voted Brian May's guitar solos on "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Brighton Rock" into the "top 50 Greatest Guitar Solos of all time", ranking them at No.20 and No.41 respectively.
In November 2007, Brian May was appointed chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.
On 14 May 2008, Brian May graduated at the awards ceremony of Imperial College, held in the Royal Albert Hall.
On 18 June 2008, Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after Brian May, suggested by Patrick Moore.
In October 2010, Brian May received an award from the International Fund for Animal Welfare in recognition of his animal welfare work.
In 2011, Brian May was ranked number 26 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In 2012, Brian May was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Saxby Medal for achievement in the field of three-dimensional imaging.
In 2012, Brian May was ranked the second-greatest guitarist in a Guitar World magazine readers poll.
In June 2013, naturalist Sir David Attenborough and rock guitarist Slash joined Brian May to form a supergroup, Artful Badger and Friends, and released a song dedicated to badgers, "Badger Swagger".
On 1 September 2013, "Save the Badger Badger Badger" charted at No. 79 on the UK Singles Chart, No. 39 on the UK iTunes chart, and No. 1 on the iTunes Rock chart.
In 2013, a new species of damselfly from Brazil was named Heteragrion brianmayi, paying tribute to the 40th anniversary of Queen's founding.
In 2018, the band Queen received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2019, Brian May was awarded the Lawrence J. Burpee Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for outstanding contributions to the advancement of geography.
In 2020, Brian May participated in the team that contributed stereography images of numerical simulations of asteroid disruptions and re-accumulations, published in Nature Communications. The publication presented a scenario of formation of the asteroids (101955) Bennu and (162173) Ryugu. For his contribution by making stereoscopic images of Ryugu, May was awarded the JAXA Hayabusa2 Honor Award in 2020.
In 2021, Brian May was awarded an honorary fellowship and Denis Pellerin was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Literature from the Royal Holloway College, University of London for their work to preserve Victorian stereoscopy through the London Stereoscopic Company.
In September 2022, Brian May was awarded the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication at the Starmus IV festival in Yerevan, Armenia.
In December 2022, Brian May was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2023 New Year Honours.
In March 2023, Brian May was officially knighted by the King.
In 2023, Brian May contributed to NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission and was knighted by King Charles III in the New Year Honours for services to music and charity.
In 2023, Brian May was ranked at No. 33 on Rolling Stone's list of 250 greatest guitarists of all time.
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