Duran Duran Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
48 free Duran Duran trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
42 free Duran Duran trivia questions with answers. Duran Duran were the band MTV was built for: five faces from Birmingham, videos shot in Sri Lanka and Antigua, and a run of hits that had the British press calling them the Fab Five. This Duran Duran trivia quiz covers all of it, from the Rum Runner nightclub and the Barbarella villain who gave them their name to Rio, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, the Bond theme, Live Aid, the side projects, the 1990s comeback with Ordinary World and their 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. The 48 questions run from easy (who sings lead?) to genuinely hard (which single blocked Bruce Springsteen from number one?), so casual fans and people who owned the 12-inch night versions can both play. Every answer is checked against the band's documented history and interviews, not fan trivia lists.
30 of 48 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which English city was Duran Duran formed in 1978?
Birmingham
Birmingham is where Nick Rhodes and John Taylor formed the band in 1978 with singer Stephen Duffy, who quit the next year, before they had a record deal, and later led The Lilac Time.
Q 02Duran Duran took their name from a villain in which 1968 science-fiction film?
Barbarella
Barbarella's villain is the mad scientist Durand Durand; John Taylor suggested borrowing his name after the Jane Fonda space romp was shown on BBC television in October 1978.
Q 03Which nightclub made Duran Duran its resident band in 1980, its owners becoming their managers?
The Rum Runner
The Rum Runner gave the band a room to rehearse in and jobs around the club, from the door to the DJ booth; its owners, Paul and Michael Berrow, became their managers.
Q 04Who recommended Simon Le Bon to Duran Duran before his May 1980 audition?
A club employee
A club employee, Fiona Kemp, who was or had been his girlfriend, worked where the band rehearsed and sent the drama student along; he turned up for the audition in pink leopard-print trousers.
Q 05How are Duran Duran's three Taylors related?
Not at all
Not at all: the three simply share a surname. John co-founded the band, Roger joined in 1979, and Andy came down from Newcastle in 1980 after answering an advert for a guitarist.
Q 06What was Duran Duran's first hit single, which peaked at number 12 in early 1981?
Planet Earth
Planet Earth reached number 12 in the UK and went top ten in Australia, helped by a Russell Mulcahy video the band made so they could promote it there without making the trip.
Q 07Which Duran Duran video, made by Godley & Creme for nightclub screens, was banned by the BBC?
Girls on Film
Girls on Film was shot with nudity for the video screens in clubs and bars, beyond the reach of broadcast rules; the BBC banned it and MTV aired only a cut-down edit.
Q 08Which record label signed Duran Duran in December 1980?
EMI
EMI signed the band in December 1980, while they were touring as Hazel O'Connor's support act; their debut album followed the next June and reached number three in the UK.
Q 09Which May 1982 Duran Duran album produced 'Hungry Like the Wolf', 'Save a Prayer' and its title track?
Rio
Rio made the band stars at home in 1982 but stalled in America until MTV put its exotic videos in heavy rotation, which sent 'Hungry Like the Wolf' to number three there.
Q 10Which artist painted the woman on the cover of Duran Duran's 1982 second album?
Patrick Nagel
Patrick Nagel got the job after the band's manager came across his illustrations in Playboy; designer Malcolm Garrett then built the sleeve around the painting.
Q 11In which country was the 'Hungry Like the Wolf' video filmed?
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka hosted the 1982 shoot, which also produced the 'Save a Prayer' video; Andy Taylor toppled off a branch into a lagoon while miming his guitar part and later ended up in hospital.
Q 12'Hungry Like the Wolf' earned Duran Duran a 1984 Grammy in which category?
Best Short Form Music Video
Best Short Form Music Video was a brand-new Grammy category in 1984 and the band took the first one; MTV's heavy rotation of the jungle clip had already broken them in America.
Q 13On which Caribbean island did Duran Duran film their famous yacht video in 1982?
Antigua
Q 21Which veteran film composer co-wrote 'A View to a Kill' with Duran Duran?
John Barry
John Barry shaped the song more than he wrote it: Simon Le Bon said the veteran Bond composer took the band's ideas, kept the good ones and put them in order.
Q 22Which single kept 'A View to a Kill' at number two in the UK chart?
Paul Hardcastle's '19'
Paul Hardcastle's '19' began with a television documentary he had taped: struck by its claim that the average American soldier in Vietnam was 19, he set samples of its narration to an electro beat.
Q 23At which venue did Duran Duran play Live Aid on 13 July 1985?
JFK Stadium, Philadelphia
Antigua is where the band were on holiday when a film crew flew in to shoot them aboard the 1936 yacht Eilean; Nick Rhodes said he only likes boats when they're tied up and he has a cocktail.
Q 14Which member of the royal family publicly declared Duran Duran her favourite band?
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales, named them her favourite band soon after her 1981 wedding, and she and Prince Charles watched their charity concert at London's Dominion Theatre in July 1983.
Q 15What did 'Is There Something I Should Know?' become for Duran Duran in March 1983?
First UK number one
Their first UK number one went straight in at the top in March 1983, and the band's American label then added the stand-alone single to a relaunched US edition of the debut album.
Q 16Which 1983 album was Duran Duran's first to top the UK chart?
Seven and the Ragged Tiger
Seven and the Ragged Tiger was made while the band spent a year abroad as tax exiles, a slow and costly job, yet it topped the UK album chart in December 1983.
Q 17Who remixed 'The Reflex' into Duran Duran's first US number one?
Nile Rodgers
Nile Rodgers of Chic took a song that had been passed over as a single and rebuilt it with stuttering samples; his remix of 'The Reflex' topped the US chart in June 1984.
Q 18Which Bruce Springsteen single did 'The Reflex' block from reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100?
Dancing in the Dark
Dancing in the Dark reached number two in June 1984 behind 'The Reflex'; Prince's 'When Doves Cry' then took over at the top and stayed there, so Springsteen's single never made number one.
Q 19'The Wild Boys' was inspired by a plan to film a novel by which Beat writer?
William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs wrote the 1971 novel The Wild Boys, which video director Russell Mulcahy hoped to film with a Duran Duran soundtrack; the film was never made, so his ideas went into the song's video.
Q 20'A View to a Kill' was the first James Bond theme song to do what?
Top the US Hot 100
Top the US Hot 100 is what it did in July 1985. The song came about after bassist John Taylor, a Bond fan who'd had a few drinks, cornered producer Cubby Broccoli at a party and pitched the band for the job.
JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, hosted the US half of Live Aid, where Le Bon's voice cracked on a high note in the band's Bond theme; it proved to be the classic five's last show together for years.
Q 24Which singer fronted The Power Station, the 1985 side project of John and Andy Taylor?
Robert Palmer
Robert Palmer sang on the album and its hit 'Some Like It Hot', then quit before the tour to make a solo record, leaving singer-actor Michael Des Barres to front the band on the road.
Q 25Which single by Arcadia, the 1985 side project of Le Bon and Rhodes, reached the top ten?
Election Day
Election Day reached the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic; its spoken narration is by Grace Jones, who that year co-starred in the Bond film whose theme the full band recorded.
Q 26What was Simon Le Bon's maxi yacht, which capsized in the 1985 Fastnet Race, called?
Drum
Drum lost her keel and capsized in the 1985 Fastnet Race, trapping Le Bon under the hull until Royal Navy helicopter divers freed him.
Q 27Which two members left Duran Duran before their fourth album came out in 1986?
Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor
Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor both went: Roger, exhausted, retired to the countryside, while Andy signed a solo deal and played on only a few of the album's tracks.
Q 28Which ex-Missing Persons and Zappa guitarist joined Duran Duran in 1986 and stayed until 2001?
Warren Cuccurullo
Warren Cuccurullo began as a hired hand in 1986 and was later made a full member; the band recorded its 1993 album in a studio at his London home, and he left in 2001, when the original five reunited.
Q 29Which rapper's single is built on the riff of Duran Duran's 1986 title-track hit?
The Notorious B.I.G.
The Notorious B.I.G.'s posthumous single 'Notorious B.I.G.' loops the riff, so Nick Rhodes, John Taylor and Simon Le Bon are credited among its writers.
Q 30Whose wedding photographs appear on the cover of Duran Duran's 1993 'Wedding Album'?
The band members' parents
The band members' parents appear in their wedding-day photos, which gave the self-titled record its nickname; after years of decline it became a comeback, with 'Ordinary World' and 'Come Undone'.