Escaping Zanzibar
Born Farrokh Bulsara from Stone Town Zanzibar, Freddie Mercury is recognised as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock music, achieving worldwide fame as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. To escape the revolution in Zanzibar, Freddie Mercury's family fled to Middlesex England, where he eventually studied art at the Isleworth Polytechnic in West London, and graphic design at Ealing Art College, graduating with a diploma in 1969. After also studying and composing music for years, Mercury formed Queen in 1970 with Brian May and Roger Taylor, writing the hits Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, and We Are the Champions. In 1985, Freddie Mercury displayed his charismatic stage performance at the Live Aid Concert in London, a worldwide rock concert organized to raise money for the relief of famine-stricken Africans.
Selling clothes with Roger
After graduation, Mercury worked as a baggage handler at Heathrow Airport and sold second-hand Edwardian clothes and scarves in Kensington Market in London, with his bandmate Roger Taylor. Being remembered by friends as a quiet and shy young man with great interest in music, Mercury joined Liverpool-based band Ibex, later named Wreckage in 1969, and another Oxford-based band Sour Milk Sea. After the two bands failed and broke up, Mercury teamed up with guitarist Bryan May and his old mate Roger Taylor to form a band called Smile, now recognised as Queen, with Mercury stating that he named it as such because it sounded very regal, strong and universal. At the same time he started Queen, Freddie also changed his last name Bulsara, to Mercury, after he wrote the song My Fairy King, which had the lyrics of Mother Mercury, look what they've done to me.
The Power of Range
Although Mercury's natural speaking voice was categorised in the baritone range, he delivered songs in the tenor range, and had the ability to sing from a low bass to a very high soprano. Queen's performance at the Live Aid Concert in 1985, has been voted by a group of music executives, as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. Mercury's powerful, sustained note during the a cappella section came to be known as The Note Heard Round the World, with Mercury being commended by critics as not only having a strong voice, but a very interactive commanding presence on stage. Mercury performed an estimated 700 concerts around the world with Queen, to large scale audiences, creating a worldwide record for concert attendance in the Morumbi Stadium in Sao Paulo in 1981.
The Shy Singer
Although Mercury displayed a flamboyant stage personality, he was shy and withdrawn when not performing, telling interviewers that he is an extrovert when performing, but a completely different man when not. Mercury was known to have defied the conventions of a rock frontman, with his highly theatrical style, influencing the artistic direction and success of Queen. In 1982, Mercury visited a doctor in New York City after exhibiting symptoms of HIV, which led to his death on the evening of November 24, 1991, suffering from a bronchial pneumonia as a complication of AIDS. Mercury was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and was voted in 2002, as number 58 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons of all time.
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