Freddie Mercury was a British singer and composer who became famous all over the world as the lead singer of the rock band Queen.
He was recognized for his flashy stage presence and four-octave vocal range, and many people think he was one of the best rock singers ever. Mercury’s dramatic flair went against the norms of a rock vocalist and had an impact on Queen’s musical direction.
Mercury was born in Zanzibar in 1946 to Parsi-Indian parents. He went to English-style boarding schools in India starting at age eight and then went back to Zanzibar after finishing high school.
His family left Zanzibar after the Zanzibar Revolution in 1964 and moved to Middlesex, England. He had been studying and writing music for years before he started Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor.
Mercury penned a lot of Queen’s biggest singles, like “Killer Queen,” “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Somebody to Love,” “We Are the Champions,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”
His charming performances on stage sometimes included talking to the audience, as seen at the 1985 Live Aid concert. He also had a solo career and worked as a producer and guest musician for other artists.
Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. He continued to record with Queen, and posthumously featured on their final album, Made in Heaven (1995).
He announced his diagnosis the day before his death, from complications from the disease, in 1991 at the age of 45. In 1992, a concert in tribute to him was held at Wembley Stadium, in benefit of AIDS awareness.
As a member of Queen, Mercury was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2003, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004.
In 1990, he and the other Queen members were awarded the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, and one year after his death, Mercury was awarded it individually.
In 2005, Queen were awarded an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors. In 2002, Mercury was voted number 58 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.
Mercury’s natural speaking voice was in the baritone range, but he sang most of his songs in the tenor range. He could sing from low F to high F, which is a wide range for a singer. He could belt up to tenor high F.
Biographer David Bret said that his voice “rises from a deep, throaty rock-growl to a tender, vibrant tenor, then to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches.”
Montserrat Caballé, a Spanish soprano who worked with Mercury on an album, said that “the difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice.”
She says, “His technique was amazing.” He had no trouble with tempo; he sang with a sharp sense of rhythm, his vocal positioning was extremely good, and he could easily move from one range to another.
He was also very musical. His wording was either soft, sweet, and delicate or loud, powerful, and pounding. He was able to give each word the correct color or emotive touch.
Roger Daltrey, the lead singer of The Who, called Mercury “the best virtuoso rock ‘n’ roll singer of all time.” He could sing in any style and about anything. He could modify his style from one line to the next, and that’s an art. And he was quite good at it.
Andrew Lloyd Webber remarked that the individual who would perform the lead character in his musical Jesus Christ Superstar has to be “of enormous charisma” and “a real, real rock tenor.” That’s what it is. “Really think Freddie Mercury; that’s the kind of range we’re talking about.”
In 2016, a group of researchers looked into what makes Mercury’s voice so appealing. The study, led by Professor Christian Herbst, found that Mercury’s voice was different from opera singers’ in that it had a noticeably faster tremolo and used subharmonics.
The researchers looked at vocal samples from 23 Queen recordings that were available for sale, as well as his solo work and a number of interviews with the late musician. They also utilized an endoscopic video camera to look at a rock singer who was brought in to sound like Mercury.
People loved Mercury’s live shows, which he routinely performed for stadium crowds all around the world. He had a really theatrical manner that got a lot of people in the crowd to join in.
A writer for The Spectator said that he was “a performer out to tease, shock, and ultimately charm his audience with various extravagant versions of himself.”
David Bowie, who played at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and sang “Under Pressure” with Queen, lauded Mercury’s manner of performance, saying, “Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest… he took it over the edge.” And of course, I always thought a guy who wears tights was cool. I only saw him perform once, but as they say, he was a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand.
Brian May, the guitarist for Queen, said that Mercury could make “the last person at the back of the furthest stand in a stadium feel that he was connected.”
Mercury’s main prop on stage was a broken microphone stand. He broke it off the heavy base by mistake during an early show and then realized it could be used in many ways.
The 1985 Live Aid concert was one of Mercury’s most famous performances with Queen. A group of music executives has since rated Queen’s performance at the event the best live performance in rock music history.
A TV show named “The World’s Greatest Gigs” showed the findings. The long, strong note that Mercury sang during the a cappella part became known as “The Note Heard Round the World.”
One critic said in 2005 that “those who make lists of Great Rock Frontmen and give the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc. are all making a huge mistake.” Freddie was clearly the most godlike of them all, as shown by his Dionysian Live Aid performance.
During his last tour with Queen in 1986, photographer Denis O’Regan took a picture of Mercury in a classic pose on stage: with his back arched, knee bent, and facing the sky. He said, “Freddie was a once-in-a-lifetime showman.”
Peter Hince, a roadie with Queen, says, “It wasn’t just his voice; it was how he took control of the stage.” For him, it was all about talking to the audience and understanding how to win them over. And he put everything he had into every show.
Mercury played almost 700 gigs with Queen in places all over the world during his lifetime. One thing that stood out about Queen performances was how big they were.
“We’re the Cecil B. DeMille of rock and roll,” he said once. “We always want to do things bigger and better.” In 1981, the band set global records for concert attendance in the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo, Brazil. They were the first band to play in South American stadiums.
In 1986, Queen also went behind the Iron Curtain. They played to 80,000 people in Budapest, which was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe.
On August 9, 1986, Mercury played his last show with Queen at Knebworth Park in England. It is thought that as many as 200,000 people came to see it.
A week before Knebworth, May remembered Mercury saying, “I’m not going to do this forever.” This is most likely the last time.
At the close of the concert, the British national hymn “God Save the Queen” played. Mercury’s last act on stage was to say goodbye to the fans while wearing a robe and brandishing a golden crown.
(Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons / Britannica / Pinterest / Flickr / Reddit).
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