Freddie Mercury

Jealous boy

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946 in Stone Town, died on November 24, 1991 in London) - British musician, rock singer and songwriter. Widely considered one of the best vocalists in the history of popular music.

He started his musical career in the band Ibex, later renamed Wreckage. Since 1970, he has been the vocalist of Queen, considered one of the best and most influential musical groups of all time. With the band, he recorded and released 14 studio albums: Queen (1973), Queen II (1974), Sheer Heart Attack (1974), A Night at the Opera (1975), A Day at the Races (1976), News of the World (1977) ), Jazz (1978), The Game (1980), Hot Space (1982), The Works (1984), A Kind of Magic (1986), The Miracle (1989), Innuendo (1991) and Made in Heaven (1995) , he also wrote many hits, including: "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions". Also a solo artist since 1984, he recorded two albums: Mr. Bad Guy (1985) and Barcelona (1988) in a duet with Montserrat Caballé; he promoted the first album with the hits "I Was Born to Love You" and "Living on My Own", and the second with the title hit.

He was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946, in a government hospital in Stone Town, Zanzibar, then a British colony. His parents, British official Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were Parsis from Gujarat and followers of Zoroastrianism. At first he lived in Zanzibar, then also in India (with Farrokh's aunt and grandmother), and in 1964 he settled with his entire family in Great Britain. They lived in Feltham for a long time. In adulthood, his parents moved to Nottingham to be closer to their daughter, Kashmira, six years younger than her brother. Their father died on December 26, 2003 at the age of 95, and their mother died on November 13, 2016 at the age of 94.

Farrokh's first public appearance was posing for a photo for which a photographer in Zanzibar received the local award for best photography in 1947. At the age of five, Bulsara began attending a school run by British nuns. He was then sent to a large British boarding school in Panchgani, where he was nicknamed "Freddie". The school was characterized by discipline, an example of which was the punishment of cutting off a boy's long hair because of a fight with a friend. During his school years, he showed musical talent and learned to play the piano thanks to his aunt. He then started playing in his first rock and roll band - The Hectics - which he co-founded with: Derrick Branche, Bruce Murray, Farang Irani and Victory Rana. At school, he was also interested in art and sports - cricket, boxing and long-distance running. At the age of 10, he won a school table tennis tournament and was also involved in choir and theater activities. Although he didn't see his parents often, unlike many other rock stars, he had fond memories of his school days. He attended Cathedral and John Connon School and St. Mary's High School, Mumbai. In 1963 he returned to Zanzibar to continue his studies at the school at the monastery of St. Joseph.

In 1964, at the age of 18, due to the civil war in Zanzibar, together with his parents and younger sister Kashmira, he left for England and settled in Feltham, in Hounslow - a town in the agglomeration of west London. Unlike his parents, he was happy with the move to Europe - already in Zanzibar he was interested in the Western world of music and fashion. In 1964 he graduated from Isleworth Polytechnic (now West Thames College), where he appeared in Arnold Wesker's play entitled The Kitchen. He then enrolled at Ealing College of Art, majoring in graphic arts. In 1969 he obtained a diploma in graphic arts and design. At the time, he was earning money as a salesman in a second-hand clothes shop in Kensington Market, London, where he worked with Roger Taylor. Previously, during the holidays, he worked in the catering department at Heathrow Airport, which was close to his home.