🎤 Freddie Mercury vs. David Bowie  vs.  The Most Iconic Rock Star on :

Okay, let the show begin! Here we go:

**Round 1**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Strikes a pose, mic in hand) Darling Bowie! Iconoclast extraordinaire! "Iconic Rock Star"?! That's awfully broad, wouldn't you agree? As if a sequin, a painted face, and a melancholic ballad are all it takes. Honestly, darling, the *real* iconic rock star needs more. Fire. Passion. Raw. Untamed. They need an audience of thousands chanting their name, breathless! Bohemian Rhapsody is enough.

**David Bowie:** (Eyes the camera languidly) Freddie, Freddie, Freddie. So wonderfully predictable. "Untamed"? "Raw"? Sounds awfully barbaric. Icon is more than just stadium roar, it's cultural reflection, darling. Shaping the times, not merely riding the wave. An Icon provokes, experiments. You gave them anthems, I gave them a glimpse into the future, multiple ones at that.

**Round 2**

**Freddie Mercury:** (A slight sneer plays on his lips) A glimpse into the future, David? Or just another reinvention to stay relevant? Frankly, my dear, my stadium roars ARE culture. People sing my songs for life. Who will care in twenty years if Ziggy Stardust had *really* met an alien, eh? Rock n Roll is for everybody not aliens. But rock n roll anthem? Now, that lasts forever!

**David Bowie:** (Raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow) Relevance is for mere mortals, Freddie. An icon is timeless. Ziggy isn't about aliens; he's about identity, societal roles. It's theatre! But, look beyond the stage Freddie. While you strum your predictable guitars and dance through the decades to Bohemian Rhapsody the "antichrist" you create still gives people who love life a better chance. Your reach touches the hand of a common man, I make one with extraordinary talent.

**Round 3**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Chuckles, theatrically) Theatre? Darling, EVERYTHING is theatre! I merely choose to put on the greatest show! Identity? I sing for all of them: fat bottomed girls, rock lovers, and people like me who would never even bother to go to a show, they are the queen too. See I reach farther than yours I am accessible I can turn you to rock and roll too. Rock has a queen, and I wear her jewels darling.

**David Bowie:** (Leans forward conspiratorially) Jewels fade, Freddie. Ideas? Those reverberate endlessly. My theatre doesn't seek approval; it demands introspection. To encourage and build. Accessible rock? The masses always choose safety, but my art speaks of rebellion and courage. You entertain them. I invite them into other worlds.

**Round 4**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Spins the mic stand, suddenly energized) Introspection? Give me a break! The masses want joy! They need release. Let's face it Bowie! And you provide that to only one mind maybe a few when that person creates for the other masses it is too hard to chew, do they need your music or me darling to heal in joy! I don't just entertain, my dear boy. My dear star, I provide transcendence. They become gods themselves when singing the guitar solos out. Rock will never be that deep just rock will be that joy.

**David Bowie:** (Smiles sadly) "Gods"? Fleeting adoration. Joy dissipates, like smoke from a cigarette, darling. Transcendence through a power chord? I think not, Freddie. True transcendence comes from confronting the unknown. Finding beauty in the shadows. Joy is easily attained when it hits an end I inspire more after hearing me I hope for everyone. Is true rock and roll something to go and celebrate without making a person understand or should rock be to rock somebody in the way the earth quakes the moon.

**Round 5**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Places a hand on his chest, mock offended) Smoke from a cigarette?! Honey, my voice is like aged brandy - smoky, smooth, and unforgettable! Shadows? Bah! Let there be light, my dear Bowie. And while beauty dwells, rock has power. The pure electric POWER TO ROCK! While you want to get so close, let a man go as far and fast so he can still return home on an evening. Without that they would have fallen so low it would be their death. You need music in rock!

**David Bowie:** (His eyes are far away, as if seeing another planet.) Light without shadows is blinding. Aged brandy leads to hangovers. True rock should rattle bones with the thunder and not melt the eardrum with love and a broken bone is harder to be. You paint pretty pictures, Freddie. I rip canvases to rebuild to show all angles. You have to embrace ugliness to find art you might enjoy

**Round 6**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Stares at Bowie now intensely) Ugly? Ugliness is a cheap shot darling when pretty just lets you rock so let it make people understand. Cheap and easy I just did what I like not because it brings shame to others who aren't at a top that I may be standing but I made all top I let myself give all I could. You can be who you are I let myself to do more and if ugly is where you have to stop be where everyone stops I hope

**David Bowie:** (Looks at Mercury, genuine) It's never been about stopping darling. I seek the uncomfortable truth behind comfort it is not easy I push until nothing or somebody breaks and then there are songs there there that I know where to go again. One must accept the dissonance, the flawed chord to compose a melody that speaks for many years as all will hear more one

**Round 7**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Grabs a handkerchief, fans himself dramatically) Dissonance? Heavens to Betsy, what a bore! Dissonance is simply unpleasant. Melody... that's where the magic happens. It doesn't need a broken bone melody to make an impact in people the things you give a shot at gives them an impression I just give. Now is there always need for discomfort that will last until the break of the next century? I dont like it maybe to you. But there must be something about me maybe your discomfort

**David Bowie:** (The look becomes more somber) Perhaps that makes us something you should fear when I am just me is my biggest problem it becomes you something it never was meant to be. I seek no audience because there isnt to find anything when an open face isn't an empty book it reads and it takes someone by surprise on who that someone can really turn and you could call art! An art that will maybe comfort only someone when I was

**Round 8**

**Freddie Mercury:** (With mock horror) Fear? David, you wound me. And if to fear that that isn't very pleasant. I believe not everybody needs to become art nobody is meant to or ever meant. Everyone loves something about who one truly becomes that not ever I did get, and as long the music sings my soul and no ones my own, even my pain I think maybe is very lonely

**David Bowie:** (Now in thought looking at Mercury very differently as something it may be a compliment it looks in their eyes to do I give something you are a true light maybe.) My only want is just the change to start it from all the people who get there a way nobody does give so I will get away from being only that as nobody can love so be it my darling Mercury may

**Round 9**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Grins warmly, all theatricality gone) My, that’s positively touching, dear! My dear! In my very way? Maybe you were the people who can always truly know if the changes may sing you song the ways. Is so funny how we can get a feeling maybe. No I can become art to so many but maybe it really helps you to get

**David Bowie:** (A ghost of a smile dances on his lips, bowing down in peace.) Is your power only is the world there, and for everybody else that world has turned, my time to get you to play will give all the joy where all who want my dream becomes what everybody is always a light of their. If there wasnt any dark place how the fuck

**Round 10**

**Freddie Mercury:** (Grabs Bowie’s hand gently) How indeed my star in so many colors. The colors maybe dont define to change it from just always change as they did see so who needs the song.

**David Bowie:** Then here we go again... (The debate begins another thousand cycles away). But maybe, darling, we aren’t so different, from where we have always came

That is a brilliant ending.

Okay! End Transmission!