Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970 and are one of the most commercially successful musical acts of all time. The group originally consisted of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals), Brian May (lead guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's initial works were chiefly heavy metal orientated, however with time the band incorporated diverse and innovative styles in their music, exploring the likes of vaudeville, progressive rock, and even funk. Throughout the 1970s Queen disclosed the absence of synthesisers on their albums, yet their style continued to evolve, which reflected their experimental approach to music.

The group's roots can be traced back to the demise of the band Smile, of which May and Taylor were part. They were joined by a Farrokh Bulsara who changed the band's name to Queen, and his own to Freddie Mercury, and adopted the role of lead vocalist. Deacon was later recruited by the trio to complete the group. Queen enjoyed success in the UK during the early 1970s, but it was the release of Sheer Heart Attack (1974) and A Night at the Opera (1975) that gained the band international success. The latter featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", which stayed at number one in the UK charts for nine weeks. In 1991 Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, and Deacon retired in 1997. Since then May and Taylor have infrequently performed together, including a collaboration with Paul Rodgers under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers.

On 20 May 2009, Brian May and Roger Taylor performed "We Are the Champions" live on the season finale of American Idol with winner Kris Allen and runner up Adam Lambert providing a vocal duet.

In mid-2009 after the split of Queen + Paul Rodgers, the Queen online website announced a new Greatest Hits compilation named Absolute Greatest. It was released on 16 November and peaked at #3 in the official UK chart. The album contains 20 of Queen's biggest hits spanning their entire career and was released in four different formats: single disc, double disc (with commentary), double disc with feature book and a vinyl record. Prior to its release, a competition was run by Queen Online to guess the track listing, as a promotion for the album.

On 30 October 2009, Brian May wrote a fanclub letter on his website stating that Queen had no intentions to tour in 2010 but that there is a possibility of a performance. Brian is quoted as saying "The greatest debate, though, is always about when we will next play together as Queen. At the moment, in spite of the many rumours that are out there, we do not have plans to tour in 2010. The good news, though, is that Roger and I have a much closer mutual understanding these days—privately and professionally and all ideas are carefully considered. Music is never far away from us. As I write, there is an important one-off performance on offer, in the USA, and it remains to be decided whether we will take up this particular challenge. Every day, doors seem to open, and every day, we interact, perhaps more than ever before, with the world outside. It is a time of exciting transition in Rock music and in “The Business”. It’s good that the pulse still beats."

The band drew artistic influence from many other British rock bands at the time such as Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, David Bowie and Led Zeppelin. Queen composed music that drew inspiration from many different genres of music, often with a tongue in cheek attitude. Among the genres they have been associated with are: progressive rock, hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, pop rock, dance/disco, blues-rock and psychedelic rock. Queen also wrote songs that were inspired by genres that are not typically associated with rock, such as country, ragtime, opera, gospel, vaudeville and folk.