Do you know who is... Farrokh Bulsara?

Farrokh Bulsara was born on September 5, 1946 at the Shangani Govt. Hospital, from the island of Zanzibar, then a British protectorate and now part of Tanzania.

Farrokh Bulsara was born on September 5, 1946

His parents are Bomi and Jeremías Bulsara, they were Parsis from the Gujarat region, part of Bombay in British India. They lived for a time in Africa due to the work of their father who was a cashier for the Secretary of State for the Colonies. The family surname comes from the name of the city of Bulsar in southern Gujarat.

This photograph was taken on April 12, 1947, Farrokh Bulsara is seen in the arms of his mother Jer

On February 4, 1954, at the age of seven, he was sent with his grandmother and aunt Sheroo Khory to study at St. Peter's School, a British-style boarding school for boys at Pachgani, near Bombay, India. . This was where he began to be better known as Freddie, a nickname that his family also adopted.

Freddie began to demonstrate his talents for music from school, being noticed by the dean of St. Peter College, who wrote a letter to his parents, suggesting that, with the increase in the monthly fee, Freddie could take more music classes. . With the approval of Bomi and Jer, Freddie reached the fourth level of piano learning.

Photo of the group The Hectics, in Bombay in 1958. In the center, Farrokh Bulsara

During his stay at the university, he also had his first musical experiences, together with four classmates they formed The Hectics, a band that performed at parties or school events and in which Freddie was the pianist, playing songs by Cliff Richard, Little Richard and by Buddy Holly. A friend of his at the time said that Freddie had "an incredible ability to listen to the radio and play the melodies on the piano". He finished his education at St. Mary's School in Bombay.

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At the beginning of 1964, Bulsara returned to Zinzibar at the age of eighteen, however soon after he had to move with his family to England because of the Zinzibar revolution that gave rise to the birth of the state of Tanzania. So he settled in a small house in a neighborhood called Feltham near Heathrow airport in London, England.

Freddie continued his education at Isleworth Polytechnic; specializing in art studies, in his early English years he worked in a catering service near the airport and in a warehouse in the commercial area at Feltham. Being in England, he was seduced by pop music and was influenced by the Rock music of influential artists such as The Hugh, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones as well as the interpretation of Liza Minnelli in the movie Cabaret.

At the beginning of 1964, Bulsara returned to Zinzibar at the age of eighteen, however soon after he had to move with his family to England because of the Zinzibar revolution that gave rise to the birth of the state of Tanzania. So he settled in a small house in a neighborhood called Feltham near Heathrow airport in London, England.

Freddie continued his education at Isleworth Polytechnic; specializing in art studies, in his early English years he worked in a catering service near the airport and in a warehouse in the commercial area at Feltham. Being in England, he was seduced by pop music and was influenced by the Rock music of influential artists such as The Hugh, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones as well as the interpretation of Liza Minnelli in the movie Cabaret.

A few days after the first meeting with the group, Freddie had memorized all the songs in the group's repertoire. His first public performance as a singer was given in Bolton on August 23, 1969 to a paying audience. Freddie was very shy and sang the first verse of the song with his back to the audience.

Two days later, Ibex performed an open-air concert in Bolton's Queen's Park where he was already jumping up and down and giving his face to the audience; as a result, the band members returned to London and began work on some songs with the new singer.

This was a financially difficult period, both for the Bulsara band and for Smile. The musicians spent most of their time together in small apartments, sometimes sleeping on the floor and playing their music late into the night. Both Bulsara and Roger Taylor worked as vendors at Kengsington Market. Ibex's last official appearance was on September 9, 1969 at El Sink, a small club in Liverpool. That same night, the members of Smile were playing at a club in the same city. According to some biographers, Taylor and May invited Bulsara up on stage to play some of their songs.

In the early 1970s, Freddie Mercury began to have his first awareness of his sexual orientation, expressed during a December 1974 interview with New Musical Express magazine, where he declared that he was "gay as a daffodil". Those years, Mercury wore clothes by designer Zandra Rhodes, in addition to having long hair and painted nails.

Throughout the decade, Mercury had a long relationship with Mary Austin, whom he met through Brian May, and lived with her for many years in West Kensington. He also had an affair with an executive of the Elektra Records company, which ended his relationship with her. Mercury and Austin maintained a close friendship over the years, with the singer referring to her as his only true friend. In a 1985 interview, she stated, "All my lovers ask me why I can't replace Mary Austin, but that's just impossible. The only friend I have is Mary and I don't want anyone else. To me, she's like a friend." wife. It was like a marriage to me. We trusted each other, that's enough for me." He wrote many songs about Austin, most notably Love of My Life. Mercury was also godfather to Austin's eldest son, Richard.

As the decade progressed, Mercury began to cut more and more of the volume and length of his hair and also began to let go of his glam-era outfits. By 1978, she had neck-length hair and began to dress in a variety of ways.

Mercury's adoption of the mustache coincided with the archetypal look of male homosexuals in the early 1980s known as Castro clone style.

In the early 1980s, Freddie debuted his new look on the cover of "Play the Game" as he cut his hair short and grew a mustache. The adoption of the mustache coincided with the archetypal look of gay men. from the early eighties known as Castro clone style, after the neighborhood of the same name in San Francisco. The style of his hair and mustache also changed over the years. At first Freddie had thick hair as well as his mustache, then he began to lower the volume of his hair and started combing it closer to his head, as well as making his mustache thinner. Already by 1987 he shaved off his characteristic mustache.

Mercury's embrace of the gay lifestyle of the 1980s also influenced Queen's next album, Hot Space, as more room was given to gay club dance tunes, and the band wanted to capitalize on the sound of 1980's hit single Another One Bites the Dust. Unfortunately, the album met with poor reception and, with the exception of Under Pressure, hardly any tracks stood out.

Freddie Mercury performing "Another One Bites The Dust" in 1980

Freddie Mercury in 1984

During those years, Queen and Michael Jackson coincided in the studio and Mercury became friends with Jackson, and they recorded two songs. Despite the initial chemistry, Jackson and Mercury distanced themselves due to the customs of each of them that were not compatible with their respective personalities. Mercury said of Jackson, for example, that he was too eccentric for him and his lifestyle.

Queen participated in the benefit concert Live Aid (1985), organized by Bob Geldof to raise funds against the hunger that devastated Ethiopia in those years. The previous year they had released the album The Works, but since 1983 its members had dedicated themselves more to their respective solo careers than to their project as a group, although they remained in contact. For just over twenty minutes they gave what is considered the best live concert in rock history, and played songs like "We Are the Champions", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Radio Ga Ga", among others.​

Around 1985, Mercury began another long-term relationship with a hairdresser named Jim Hutton, (who would be diagnosed with HIV in 1990 and would live with Mercury for the last six years of his life). Hutton admitted that it took a year for him to break the news of his diagnosis to Mercury. Hutton died of lung cancer on January 1, 2010. The year after the relationship began, in 1986, Freddie Mercury embarked, with Queen, on the Magic Tour, which consisted of twenty-six concerts in Europe.

On their way through Madrid, Freddie Mercury and the rest of the band gave an interview to the TVE program Informe Semanal. In it, Freddie showed his devotion to the Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé. In Mercury's words, she was "a super diva". They met in March 1987 at the Ritz Hotel in Barcelona. They decided to make a song together, and then they made a whole album: Barcelona. Mercury and Caballé forged a great friendship. They gave two live concerts: the first in Ibiza, at the Ku nightclub; the second at La Nit, in October 1988, in Barcelona. The song "Barcelona" was chosen by the Spanish Olympic Committee as the official anthem for the 1992 Summer Olympics that were held in that city.

According to his partner, Jim Hutton, Freddie Mercury was diagnosed after Easter 1987.

At that time, Mercury said in an interview that he did not suffer from this disease. Despite these denials, the British press fueled rumors about this possible illness due to Mercury's appearance and the fact that Queen no longer toured or concerts, since Queen's next album, The Miracle, although it had had singles and promotional videos, it showed changes in Mercury's appearance.

Mercury's last public appearance was on February 18, 1990, for that year's Brit Awards gala, which honored the band for their contribution to British music. At the gala, a thin and emaciated-looking Mercury was seen. The speech was given by Brian May, while Mercury limited himself to thanking.

Despite his health deteriorating over time, Queen recorded what would be the band's last album, Innuendo. The album was released in February 1991 and Mercury's absence from the album launch party did not help his AIDS rumors, in addition to the fact that Queen released some videos with photomontages of previous videos and in the only two that the band came out appeared with a white light on a black background, in an attempt to hide the increasingly obvious signs of the advance of AIDS. Towards the end of his life, many journalists took pictures of him, while The Sun suggested that he was indeed very ill.

Freddie Mercury on his Album Innuendo in 1991

Freddie Mercury on his 1991 Album Innuendo looked extremely thin and sick

Freddie Mercury on his 1991 Album Innuendo looked extremely thin and sick

Freddie Mercury on his 1991 Album Innuendo looked extremely thin and sick

On November 22, 1991, Mercury called Queen manager Jim Beach to discuss a public matter. The next day, the following announcement was made on behalf of the singer:

Following the huge press conjecture of the last two weeks, it is my wish to confirm that I have AIDS. I felt it was right to keep this information private to this day to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come for my friends and followers to know the truth and I hope that you will all join me and my doctors in fighting this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very important to me and I am famous because I hardly give interviews. This policy will continue.

The day after this briefing was written, on November 24, 1991, Mercury died at the age of forty-five. The official cause of his death was bronchopneumonia complicated by AIDS. Although he was not a religious person, his funeral was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest. Elton John, David Bowie and members of Queen were in attendance. Mercury was cremated and his ashes rest in some unknown place.

It is rumored that they were scattered by Mary Austin along Lake Geneva in Switzerland, where Mercury lived his last years and where his memorial is located, specifically in the city of Montreux. It is also said that they rest at the foot of the enormous oak that crowns the garden of his Garden Lodge residence in Kensington, and which was also distributed among several London theaters; None of these claims have been confirmed so far.

Freddie Mercury became a legend, however his ego and high self-esteem led him to make decisions that led to his death, and what do you do to make a difference?

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Freddie Mercury | Farrokh Bulsara | Queen | Queen Rock Band | Innuendo | The Miracle | Ibex | Smile | Mary Austin | Roger Taylor | HotSpace | Another One Bites the Dust | Mercury | bommi | Bryan May | Gay as a Daffodil | Daffodil | Bohemian Rhapsody.