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Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, wrote the 1975 single Bohemian Rhapsody, which remains one of the best-selling singles worldwide. He performed at Live Aid in 1985, a concert voted the world’s greatest in a 2005 poll. Mercury died on November 24, 1991 from bronchopneumonia as a complication of AIDS.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Freddie Mercury — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Freddie Mercury by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Freddie Mercury — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Freddie Mercury was born on September 5, 1946 in Stone Town, Zanzibar, to Bomi and Jer Bulsara. He was sent to St. Peter’s Boys School in India from 1955 to 1963. His family fled Zanzibar after a revolution in 1964 and settled in England. He studied at Ealing Art College in London, where he earned a diploma in Art and Graphic Design, and later met future bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor through friend Tim Staffell.
In 1973, Queen released their debut album, but their breakthrough came with the 1974 single Killer Queen from Sheer Heart Attack. The 1975 album A Night at the Opera featured Bohemian Rhapsody, which became their signature song. After the success of Another One Bites the Dust in 1980, the band faced a downturn with Flash Gordon and Hot Space, but a collaboration with David Bowie on Under Pressure in 1981 marked a highlight. Following a year off, they returned with The Works in 1984, and their performance at Live Aid in 1985 revitalized their career. Mercury released a solo album Mr. Bad Guy in 1985, which peaked at number six in the UK. He later collaborated with Montserrat Caballé on the 1988 album Barcelona. In 1989, Queen released The Miracle, and in 1991, Innuendo, recorded as Mercury’s health declined due to AIDS.
Mercury had a close relationship with Mary Austin, to whom he wrote the song Love of My Life. He later had a long-term partnership with Jim Hutton from 1985 until his death. He was survived by his parents, sister Kashmira Cooke, and his cats, to whom he dedicated his solo album Mr. Bad Guy. In his will, he left the majority of his wealth to Mary Austin, and also bequeathed £500,000 to his partner Jim Hutton and amounts to his chef, personal assistant, and driver.
Mercury’s performance at Live Aid in 1985 was voted the World’s Greatest Concert in a 2005 Channel 4 poll. In 2001, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him as a member of Queen. In 1990, Queen won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution, his last public appearance. A 2002 Guinness World Records poll named Bohemian Rhapsody Britain’s favourite pop single. His vocal range of four octaves makes him one of the greatest frontmen in rock music.
Browse the complete filmography of Freddie Mercury — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Freddie Mercury — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Freddie Mercury's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from Freddie Mercury — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
If I Didn’t Do This Well, I Just Wouldn’t Have Anything to Do…I Can’t Cook, and I’d Be a Terrible Housewife.
I’m Just a Musical Prostitute My Dear
The Bigger the Better; in Everything.
Years Ago, I Thought up the Name Queen…It’s Just a Name, but It’s Very Regal Obviously, and It Sounds Splendid…It’s a Strong Name, Very Universal and Immediate. It Had a Lot of Visual Potential and Was Open to All Sorts of Interpretations. I Was Certainly Aware of the Gay Connotations, but That Was Just One Facet of It.
Oh, I Was Not Made for Heaven. No, I Don’t Want to Go to Heaven. Hell Is Much Better. Think of All the Interesting People You’re Going to Meet Down There!
Modern Paintings Are Like Women, You’ll Never Enjoy Them If You Try to Understand Them.
I Think I’m Totally Original. I’m Sure There Are Many People Who See Themselves in Me, but That’s to Them. I’m Me, Basically, and That’s How I Like to Be.
My Voice Takes a Beating. the More Vocal Gymnastics I Do in the Studio, the More I Have to Do on Stage.
The Carmen Miranda of Rock ‘N’ Roll. but What Can I Say? I’m a Flamboyant Personality. I Like Going Out and Having a Good Time.
Oh God, I Pray I’ll Never Get AIDS. so Many Friends Have It. Some Have Died, Others Won’t Last Much Longer. I’m Terrified That I’ll Be Next. Immediately After Each Time I Have Sex I Think, ‘Suppose That Was the One? Suppose the Virus Is Now in My Body? I Jump in the Shower and Scrub Myself Clean, Although I Know It’s Useless and Anyway It’s Too Late.
Fame and Success Have Brought Me Everything, Except a Loving, on Going Relationship. I Seem to Eat People up and Destroy Them No Matter How Hard I Try to Make Things Work. Sometimes I Wake up in a Cold Sweat, Screaming with Fear Because I’m so Alone. That’s Why I Go Out Looking for Someone Who Will Love Me, Even If It’s Just for a One Night Stand. I Fall in Love Far Too Quickly, and I End up Getting Hurt and Scarred. It Seems I Just Can’t Win.
I Am a Manipulator of Life.
I Have to Go Out Every Night. I Hate Staying in One Room for Too Long Anyway. I Just Like to Keep Moving.
I’m Not Married to Music, I’m Married to Love.
I Always Knew I Was a Star, and Now the Rest of the World Seems to Agree with Me.
I’m a Very Tragic Person, but There’s Always an Element of Humour at the End.
The Most Important Thing, Darling, Is to Live a Fabulous Life. as Long as It’s Fabulous, I Don’t Care How Long It Is.
I Don’t Think I’ll Make Old Bones and I Don’t Care. I’ve Lived a Full Life. I Really Have Done It All and If I’m Dead Tomorrow I Don’t Care a Damn
I Don’t Like to Explain What I Was Thinking When I Wrote a Song. I Think That’s Awful, Just Awful. When I’m Dead, I Want to Be Remembered as a Musician of Some Worth and Substance.
I Like to Enjoy Myself and What Better Way to Do It Than on Stage in Front of 300,000 People?
I Love George Michael Because He Moves so Well and Has a Sense of Dignity and Fun.
Something Like Bohemian Rhapsody Didn’t Just Come Out of Thin Air. I Did a Bit of Research, Although It Was Tongue in Cheek and It Was Mock Opera. Why Not? I Certainly Wasn’t Saying I Was an Opera Fanatic and I Knew Everything About It.
I Don’t Want to Keep Playing the Same Formula Over and Over Again, Otherwise You Just Go Insane. I Don’t Want to Become Stale. I Want to Be Creative.
I’m a Flamboyant Person. I Like to Live Life. I Certainly Work Hard for It, and I Want to Have a Good Time. Don’t Deny Me That. It Might Not Come Again and I Want to Enjoy Myself a Little.
I Liked to Sing, I Don’t Know, Call It Natural Gift or Whatever, You Know, I’m Not Afraid to Say It. It’s Just I Like to Sing and Then I Suddenly Realized That I Could Actually Write Songs and Then Make My Own Music Rather Than Before I Would, You Know, Sort of Copy Elvis Presley Songs and Things as I Do, Then I Realized That I Could Actually Write My Own Songs and Do It My Own Way. Then Suddenly, You Know, There Was a Little Taste of Success.
In Terms of Press and Things, I’m a Very Hated Person, but I Hate the Press as Well. so That Goes Both Ways, but to Me I Think I’ve Learned to Live with It. I’d Be a Liar to Say I’m Not Hurt by Criticism Because I Mean Everybody Is, You Know, of Course I Want Everybody to Say I’m Wonderful and They Like My Songs, but I Mean I Don’t Mind Actually a Sort of Genuine Well Thought Out Criticism, but I Mean of Course You’re Going to Get… Just… People Review Our Albums Without Even Listening to Them and Things Like That, but I Mean That’s the Way of the World and Before I Used to Get Really Mad and Start Tearing My Hair Out but Now I Don’t Have Anymore Sleepless Nights, so Just I Learned to Live with It. Let Them All Come.
It’s Lovely to Hear That We Are the Champions Is a Song That’s Been Taken up By, You Know, Football Fans ‘Cause That’s a Winners’ Song Which Keeps Coming Back, I Can’t Believe That Somebody Else Hasn’t Written a New Song to Take It Over.
I Relax in Ways Most People Can’t Understand. I Can Relax by Actually Just Sleeping on a Plane When I’m Flying for 20 Minutes, That’s My Relaxation. That’s All I Need. I Don’t Need Too Much Sleep. I Don’t, You Know, I Don’t Need Tons of Sleep, I Can Go with 3 or 4 Hours Sleep Every Night. That’s Enough for Me. I Recharge My Batteries in That Short a Time and I’m up Again.
When I’m Dead Are They Going to Remember Me ? I Don’t Really Think About It, It’s up to Them. When I’m Dead, Who Cares ? I Don’t.
We Started off on a Sort of Heavy Metal Footing in the Days of Led Zeppelin. I Think Led Zeppelin Are Still One of the Greatest Heavy Metal Bands That Ever Lived.
Stevie Wonder, Writing a Ballad, You Just Can’t Top That Guy.
A Concert Is Not a Live Rendition of Our Album. It’s a Theatrical Event. I Have Fun with My Clothes Onstage; It’s Not a Concert You’re Seeing, It’s a Fashion Show.
I’ve Worked Hard for Money. Nobody’s Given It to Me Dear! I’ve Earned It so It’s Mine to Do What I Want With. so If I Want a Pyramid in Kensington and I Can Afford It, I’ll Have It.
Paul Young’s Very Good. He Does a Lot of Covers, Though, Doesn’t He? I Mean, He’s Got a Beautiful Voice. I Don’t Know About His Writing Talent. His Cover Versions Seem to Be the Best.
Little-known facts about Freddie Mercury — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
He used a piano as a headboard for his bed and taught himself to play the piano backwards so if a song idea popped into his head when lying in bed, he could reach backwards and play it or record it.
Queen’s performance at Live Aid in 1985 was voted the World’s Greatest Concert in a 2005 poll for Channel 4 in the UK, beating Jimi Hendrix’s 1969 Woodstock show and the Sex Pistols’ 1976 Manchester concert.
He had a vocal range of 4 octaves.
He wrote the Queen song Love of my Life about Mary Austin.
He penned the hits Killer Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody To Love, and Crazy Little Thing Called Love, the latter written in the bathtub.
Mercury is the second most impersonated rock and roll performer in the UK after Elvis Presley.
In a 2007 O2 poll of over 2,400 music fans, Mercury was chosen as lead singer in their dream supergroup, with Jimi Hendrix on lead guitar, Elton John on piano, and Phil Collins on drums.
Mercury recorded The Show Must Go On two months before his death from AIDS; barely able to stand, he refused Brian May’s offer to sing lead and delivered his first take perfectly.
While buried in the Zoroastrian tradition, Freddie himself seldom practiced the family religion.
He disliked giving interviews and rarely spoke to the press, only trusting a select group of journalists.
He loved his cats and dedicated his solo album Mr. Bad Guy to them; when touring, he phoned his cats and talked for hours, and on one waistcoat he painted portraits of all his cats.
After a revolution in Zanzibar, he and his family fled to England, where he pursued a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design, which he later used to design Queen’s famous crest.
He chose not to get corrective oral surgery for his overbite caused by four extra teeth, fearing it would damage his voice, and also declined surgery to remove polyps on his vocal cords for the same reason; ironically, he was a smoker.
Because the United Kingdom forbids the Zoroastrian practice of deposing remains by having birds eat them, Freddie Mercury had his remains cremated and put in the custody of Mary Austin, who is the sole possessor of the location.
He designed Queen’s crest using his and his bandmates’ birth signs: two lions for Roger and John, a crab for Brian, and two fairies for himself.
The song Delilah was written about his favorite cat.
His ancestors, the Parsees, originated in Persia and fled to India in the 7th century to avoid conversion to Islam.
There is a breed of yellow rose named after him.
His baby photo won photograph of the year in 1947 in his hometown.
In his will, Mercury left the vast majority of his wealth, including his mansion and recording royalties, to Mary Austin, with the remainder to his parents and sister; he also left £500,000 to his chef Joe Fanelli, £500,000 to personal assistant Peter Freestone, £100,000 to driver Terry Giddings, and £500,000 to partner Jim Hutton.
Queen won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution in 1990; all four members accepted the award, marking Mercury’s last public appearance.
Every year between Christmas Day and New Year’s, Dutch radio station Radio 2 holds a Top 2000 Songs poll; Bohemian Rhapsody has finished first 15 times out of 19 editions.
While living in Asia, he listened to Indian artists as well as Cliff Richard and The Shadows; upon arriving in England, he was influenced by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin.
Following his death, tributes came from David Bowie, George Michael, Phil Collins, Elton John, and Sting, among others.
He was an avid philatelist, and his stamp collection is still exhibited worldwide under his birth name.
He once gave actor Dustin Hoffman a guided tour of his mansion as Hoffman considered hiring the same designer.
He was of Persian descent; his ancestors were Persians who fled to India.
Freddie and Eric Carr, second drummer for KISS, died within hours of each other on November 24, 1991.
He had the habit of calling people darling.
Aretha Franklin was one of his favorite singers.
In 1973, while Queen recorded their first album, Mercury released a single under the name Larry Lurex, covering songs by The Beach Boys and The Byrds.
Queen won the 1992 Brit Award for British Single for These Are The Days of Our Lives, and Mercury posthumously won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution.
He was a huge fan of actress Liza Minnelli.
His favorite movies were Some Like It Hot, The Women, and Imitation of Life.
When the rock group Smile split, Freddie joined Brian and Roger to form Queen.
A 2002 Guinness World Records poll of over 31,000 people named Bohemian Rhapsody Britain’s favourite pop single of all time.
He achieved grade IV in practical piano and theory, and though classically trained, he admitted he could read very little sheet music.
Jim Hutton, his partner since 1985, outlived Mercury.
Queen received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6356 Hollywood Boulevard.
Classic Rock magazine voted him the No. 1 Greatest Singer In Rock in May 2009.
The International Mustache Hall of Fame inducted him in 2015.
A OnePoll.com poll in September 2010 named him the Greatest Rock Legend Of All Time, beating Elvis Presley.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001 as a member of Queen.
His first solo album Mr. Bad Guy peaked at number six in the UK and stayed on the chart for 23 weeks, making it the most successful Queen solo project.
He was a staunch supporter of the British monarchy and named the band Queen in reference to this and for sexual innuendo.
He attended many operas and released a semi-classical album with Spanish opera diva Montserrat Caballé.
He received an HIV diagnosis in spring 1987, though the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody changed this timeline.
He attended St. Peter’s boarding school near Bombay, India, where he received grade four piano training and first performed onstage with his band the Hectics; it was there he picked up the name Freddie.
On July 19, 1986, he sang a duet of Tutti Frutti with Marillion frontman Fish in Cologne.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Freddie Mercury.
Celebrities similar to Freddie Mercury — same craft, ranked by reach.
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