by André Depienne

Freddie Mercury was born in 1946 as Faroukh Bulsara on the island of Zanzibar. By the time nobody thought that he once would be part of rock history. In 1955 Freddie went to an English boarding school in Bombay. The director reco- gnized the big talent and took care of Freddie. He got piano and singing lessons, and he joined the school’s theatre. At the end of the 60ties Fred- die met guitarist Brian May and drummer Ro- ger Taylor from the band “Smile” and acted as a consulter for fashion and choreography during a tour. In April Freddie, Brian and Roger foun- ded a new band called “Queen”. Bassist John Deacon joined the band just a little bit later. In 1972 they were discovered by an EMI-scout and they recorded their first album “Queen I”. The breakthrough only happened in 1975/76 with the classic “Bohemian Rhapsody”, from the album “A Night at the Opera”. Queen pro- duced success after success and nothing could stop them. The reason for their success was the mixture between classical music and rock and Freddie Mercury’s vocal range of 3 1⁄2 octaves. At the end of the 80ties Freddie recorded a few solo-hits like “The Great Pretender” and “Bar- celona”, a duet with Montserrat Caballe. He died in 1991 aged 45. One day prior to his death he officially announced his AIDS disease.