Freddie Mercury

At 45 years old, Freddie Mercury has this physical status:

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara; 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British singer, composer, and lead singer of the rock band Queen.

He was known for his flamboyant stage presence and four-octave vocal range in Zanzibar and Parsi parents from India in 1946 and returned to Zanzibar after secondary school.

His family survived the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964, emig to Middlesex, England.

He performed and wrote music for years before he became Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor.

"Killer Queen," "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Somebody to Love," "We Are the Champions," "Don't Stop Me Now," and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" were among Mercury's many hits for Queen.

During the 1985 Live Aid concert, his charismatic stage appearances often saw him interact with the audience.

He has also worked as a producer and guest musician for other artists as well as a solo career.

Mercury died at the age of 45 in 1991 due to AIDS-related diseases.

He reported the disease the day before his death, having been diagnosed in 1987.

In 1992, Wembley Stadium hosted a tribute concert. Mercury was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

In 1990, he and the other Queen members were deemed Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and a year after his death, Mercury was awarded the award separately.

The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection in 2005.

Mercury ranked No. 58 in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons in 2002.

Early life

Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Stone Town, Rhode Island's British protectorate of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), on September 5, 1946. Bomi (1908–2003) and Jer Bulsara (1922–2016), both from the Parsi community of western India, were his parents. The Bulsaras have roots in Bulsar (now Valsad) in Gujarat. Kashmira, his younger sister, was with him.

Bomi had to return to Zanzibar to continue his work as a cashier at the British Colonial Office, so the family had to move to Zanzibar. The Bulsaras practiced Zoroastrianism as Parsis. Mercury was born with four extra incisors, to which he attributed his improved vocal range. Mercury, a British protectorate until 1963, was born a British subject, and after the family immigrated to England, the family was registered a citizen of the United Kingdom and colonies on June 2nd, 1969.

Mercury spent the majority of his childhood in India, where he began taking piano lessons at the age of seven while living with relatives. Mercury was sent in 1954, at the age of eight, to St. Peter's School, a British-style boarding school for boys in Panchgani near Bombay. He formed the Hectics, a school band, and covered rock and roll artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard at the age of 12. "The only music he listened to and enjoyed was Western pop music," one of Mercury's former bandmates said. A friend recalls that he had "uncannily" ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano and wanted to hear what he had heard on piano. It was also at St. Peter's where he began to say himself "Freddie." In February 1963, he returned to Zanzibar, where he helped his parents at their house.

Mercury and his family immigrated from Zanzibar to escape the brutality of the Zanzibar revolution, which killed thousands of ethnic Arabs and Indians. They grew to 19 Hamilton Close, Feltham, Middlesex, a town 13 miles (21 kilometers) west of central London. The Bulsaras briefly moved to 122 Hamilton Road before settling into a tiny house on 22 Gladstone Avenue in late October. Mercury studied graphic art and design at Ealing Art College, graduating with a diploma in 1969 after first studying art at Isleworth Polytechnic in West London. He later used his skills to produce heraldic arms for his band's queen.

Mercury joined a string of bands and sold second-hand Edwardian clothing and scarves in Kensington Market in London, with Roger Taylor. "I didn't really know him as a musician back then," Taylor says, "I was just my mate."

My crazy mate!

Freddie and I were usually involved if there was amusement to be had." He worked as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport. Some of his fellow students from the time recalled him as a quiet and shy young man with a lot of interest in music. He joined Liverpool-based band Ibex in 1969, later renamed Wreckage, which performed "very Hendrix-style, heavy blues." He lived in a flat above the Dovedale Towers, a bar close to Penny Lane in Liverpool's Mossley Hill district. He formed Sour Milk Sea, an Oxford-based band, but by early 1970, the group had disbanded as well.

Mercury formed Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor in April 1970 to become their lead singer of their band Smile. They were joined by bassist John Deacon in 1971. Mercury used the word "Queen" for the band despite the other members' reservations and Trident Studios, the band's early management. "It's very regal, obviously," he later said, and it seems as if it sounds glorious." It's a popular and quick name. I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it." Bulsara's surname was changed to Mercury at the same time, and he had to change his surname, Bulsara, to Mercury. It was inspired by the line "Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me" from his song "My Fairy King" that inspired it.

Mercury designed the band's emblem, which is referred to as the "Queen crest," shortly before the release of Queen's self-titled first album. The emblem incorporates the four band members' zodiac signs: two lions for Deacon and Taylor (cancer), a crab for May (Cancer), and two fairies for Mercury (Virgo). The lions accept a stylized letter Q, the crab rests atop the letter with fires rising directly above it, and the fairies are each shielded below a lion. Within the Q, a crown is displayed, and the entire logo is overshadowed by a massive phoenix. The Queen's crest has a passing similarity to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom, particularly the lion supporters.

Personal life

Mercury had a long-term friendship with Mary Austin, whom he encountered through guitarist Brian May. Austin, a young girl from Fulham, London, met Mercury in 1969 when she was 19 and he was 24 years old, a year before Queen was born. He was with Austin for many years in West Kensington, London. He had started an affair with David Minns, an American record executive with Elektra Records, by the mid-1970s. Mercury told Austin of his sexuality, which ended their intimate relationship in December 1976. Mercury grew out of the apartment they shared and bought Austin a place of her own near his new address of 12 Stafford Terrace, Kensington.

Mercury and Austin remained close throughout the years; Mercury often referred to her as his only true friend. "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary, but it's clearly impossible." Mary is my only friend, and I don't want anyone else to worry about. She was my common-law wife, to me. It was a marriage to me. We believe in each other, so for me, it's enough." Garden Lodge, a twenty-eight room Georgian mansion in Kensington, was picked out by Austin in a quarter-acre manicured garden surrounded by a high brick wall. Piers Cameron, a painter, married Austin; they have two children. Mercury was the godfather of Richard's oldest son, Richard. "You would have been my wife, and it would have been yours anyway," Mercury said in his will.

He was apparently involved with Barbara Valentin, an Austrian actress who is featured in the film "It's a Hard Life" from early to mid-1980s. Valentin was "just a buddy," according to a previous article; Mercury was dating German restaurateur Winfried "Winnie" Kirchberger at the time; In the liner notes of his 1985 album Mr. Bad Guy, Mercury lived at Kirchberger's apartment and thanked him "for board and lodging." Kirchberger gave him a silver wedding band. In Germany, a close friend referred to him as Mercury's "great love" for the family.

He started a long-term friendship with Irish hairdresser Jim Hutton (1949-2010), whom he referred to as his husband. Mercury characterized their friendship as one based on solace and knowledge, and he said that he "honestly couldn't ask for more." Hutton, who was HIV-positive in 1990, was nursed during his illness and died at his bedside. Mercury wore a gold wedding band, which was gifted to him by Hutton in 1986, until the end of his life. It was cremated with it on. Hutton and Mercury later moved from London to the bungalow he and Mercury had built for themselves in Ireland.

Kenny Everett, a radio disc jockey, first appeared on Mercury in 1974, when he welcomed him into his Capital London breakfast show. They had a lot in common and became close friends as two of Britain's most popular, outrageous, and popular entertainers. Mercury made a trip to Everett in 1975, carrying with him a new copy of the single "Bohemian Rhapsody." Despite doubting that any station would broadcast the six-minute track, Everett performed the song on the turntable and declared, "Forget it, it's going to be the number one for decades," he said. Everett talked incessantly about a record he owned but could not play despite Capital Radio's refusal to officially endorse it. "I'm sorry, my finger must've slipped," the narrator continued to follow the script: "Oops, my finger must've slipped." Everett performed the song fourteen times in a single weekend on one occasion. Callers had been flooded with calls calling when the song would be released, and the capital's switchboard was overwhelmed.

Everett, a pioneer and mentor to Mercury and Mercury during the 1970s, was Everett's confidant and mentor. They continued to investigate their homosexuality and use opioids from the early to mid-1980s. Despite the fact that they were never partners, they did spend time together in London. Both women had fallen out by 1985, and their relationship was even more fragile as Everett was outed in Lee Everett's autobiography. Mercury and Everett were reconciled in 1989, with their health failing.

Although some commentators believed that Mercury concealed his sexual orientation from the media, some observers suspected him of being "openly gay." "So what about being bent?" asked in December 1974, a teasing comment." "You're a crafty cow," Mercury said in the New Musical Express. Let's put it this way: I was young and green at times. It's a thing that schoolboys go through. I've had my fair share of schoolboy pranks. I'm not going to go into detail." Adult males over the age of 21 had been criminalized in the United Kingdom in 1967, seven years ago. Mercury frequently kept a distance from his partner, Jim Hutton, during public appearances in the 1980s.

Journalists would sometimes refer to Mercury's flamboyant stage performances, prompting journalists to mention his sexuality. The Queen's appearance at Wembley Arena in 1984 for Kerrang!'s Dave Dickson recalled Mercury's "camp" addresses to the audience, as well as his description of him as a "posing, pouting, posturing tart." "Mercury] was a'scene-queen,' not afraid to publicly announce his homosexuality, but was unwilling to investigate or defend his 'lifestyle' in 1992. It was as if Freddie Mercury was saying, 'I am what I am.'

So what?'

And that on its own was a statement." "Mercury did not ally himself to "political outness" or to LGBT causes," Robert Urban wrote in an article for AfterElton.Some believe Mercury was bisexual, for example, during the creation of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, Wendy Curry said, "We were sitting around at one of the annual bi conventions, venting, and someone – I think it was Gigi – said we should have a party." We all adored Freddie Mercury, the Freddie Mercury, who was a great bisexual man. His birthday was in September, so why not in September? We wanted a weekend to make sure the majority of people did something. Gigi's birthday was on September 23rd.

It fell on a weekend day, so, poof!

We had a day off. "Closed throughout his life, Mercury, a bisexual man, had affairs with men," the Advocate wrote in May 2018, "the love of his life." In addition, Mercury was a "self-confessed bisexual," according to an obituary. Mercury's sexuality was depicted in the 2018 biopic of Bohemian Rhapsody, which was also accused of being "dangerous" and "confused" in its portrayal of the monarch's sexuality.

Despite cultivating a flamboyant stage personality, Mercury was shy and retiring when not doing well, particularly around people he did not know well, and only gave very few interviews. "I'm an extrovert when I'm on stage, yet inside, I'm completely different." "On this comparison to "his larger-than-life stage persona," BBC music broadcaster Bob Harris says. He was "lovely, bright, sensitive, and very vulnerable." Mercury basked in the adoration of his audience while on stage. Kurt Cobain, a frontman from Nirvana, describes how he admired and envied the way Mercury "loved, relish in the beauty, and adoration from the crowd."

Mercury never discussed his ethnic or religious origins with journalists. He said, "it's something inbred, it's a part of me," the nearest he came to doing so was in reaction to a query about his outlandish persona. I'll always walk around like a Persian popinjay," an oblique mention of his Indian Parsi roots. Although growing up, the young Bulsara was heavily inspired by British fashion and music styles. "If Freddie had his way, he would have been born in Feltham aged 18," Peter Freestone says. "One of the things about Freddie was that he was very civilized and very 'English,' Harris says. I'd go over to his apartment near Shepherd's Bush in the afternoon, and he'd get out the fine china and the sugar lumps and we'd have a cup of tea." Mercury wear outfits designed by Zandra Rhodes in the early 1970s due to his flamboyant dress sense and the emergence of glam rock in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s.

When asked by Melody Maker in 1981 if rock stars should use their influence to influence the world for the good, Mercury replied, "Leave it to the politicians." Certain people can do that sort of thing, but not so many. One John Lennon was a boy. Since he is a celebrity, he could do that kind of preaching and affect people's minds. To do this, you'll need a certain amount of intelligence and magic, and the John Lennons are few and far between. People with no talent, such as me, have no skills or capability." Mercury dedicated a song to the former member of The Beatles. "Life is Real (Song for Lennon) is included in the 1982 album Hot Space. Mercury did occasionally state his doubts about the world's health in his songs. "Under Pressure" is his most popular "message" song, "Is This the World We Created..." says the writer. (A song that Mercury and May performed at Live Aid and Greenpeace's The Album). "There Must Be More to Life Than This" (a May song that may be described as "one of Freddie's most beautiful creations) and "Innuendo" are two songs from "Innuendo).

Mercury cared for at least ten cats over his life, including: Tom, Jerry, Oscar, Tiffany, Dorothy, Delilah, Goliath, Miko, Romeo, and Lily. He was against inbreeding cats for specific attributes, but not for Tiffany and Lily, who were given as gifts by the Blue Cross. Mercury "placed as much value on these beloved creatures as on any human life," the artist Ann Ortman painted portraits of each of them. Mercury produced a song for Delilah, "his favorite cat of all," that appeared on Queen's album Innuendo. In his 1985 solo album Mr. Bad Guy to Jerry and his other cats, Mercury dedicated his liner notes. "This album is dedicated to my cat Jerry," it says, as well as Tom, Oscar, and Tiffany—and most of the cat lovers around the world—screw everybody else."

Mercury, 41,t birthday at the Pikes Hotel in Ibiza, Spain, just months after learning he had contracted HIV. Mercury sought a lot of support at the retreat, and Anthony Pike, the company's chief, described Mercury as "the most beautiful person I've ever met in my life." So entertaining and generous. Mercury "felt very much at home there," Lesley-Ann Jones, a biographer. He played tennis, lounged by the pool, and walked out to the odd gay club or bar at night. The birthday party, which took place on September 5th, has been described as "the most remarkable example of excess the Mediterranean island has ever seen" and attracted over 700 people. For the occasion, Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Famlia was served. The original cake crumbled and was replaced by a two-meter sponge cake with Mercury's song "Barcelona" on top. Jim Beach, the Queen's boss, had 232 broken glasses on display. Mercury had told Beach, "You should do what you want with your music, but don't make me boring."

Source