JOSE SANTIAGO: Twenty years without Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury, still today, is one of the most famous singers around the world. Who cannot remember his spectacular voice or his stage presence? He was known as the vocalist, pianist and frontman of the legendary British rock band called Queen, whose members were Brian May (guitar), Roger Taylor (drums) and John Deacon (bass guitar).

He was born in Zanzibar (Tanzania) on September 5th 1946 and his real name was Farookh Bulsara, the oldest child of Bomi and Jer Bulsara, who sent him to India with his uncles. There, he attended St. Peter’s boarding school, where he began to show interest in music and started taking piano lessons at the age of seven.

In 1964, Farookh moved to Middlesex in England with his family and he immediately joined up with a blues band called Wreckage. At the same time he started graphic design at Ealing College of Art, where a fellow student introduced Freddie to Brian May and Roger Taylor. They were the founders of Smile, a new band that were looking for a vocalist. Freddie became the lead singer and the band eventually changed into Queen in 1971 when bassist John Deacon joined the band.

From then till his death, Freddie’s life was linked to the history of Queen; although he never abandoned the band, he also achieved remarkable success as a solo artist. In 1985, he started his own career recording “Mr Bad Guy” and two years later he made a parody of himself with the cover version of The Platters’ song “The Great Pretender”. In that year Freddie made one of his dreams come true, as he sang with Montserrat Caballé the well-known song for Barcelona’s Olympic Games.

Later, Freddie collaborated with Dave Clarke in the recording of the West End musical “Time” and he participated and supported other Clarke’s projects, too. He was also interested in opera, ballet and theatre. He surprised Wayne Eagling (The Royal Ballet’s principal dancer) during a charity gala at the London Coliseum in 1977, performing a choreography Eagling had designed for him.

Sadly, Freddie Mercury died on 24th November 1991, twenty-four hours after he had announced he was suffering from AIDS.

Here I attach two songs by Queen: the first one the worldwide famous “Bohemian Rhapsody”, which Freddie wrote himself and was included in the 1974 album “a Night at the Opera”. A year later Queen released the single because, contrary to what the rest of the band believed, Freddie thought it was going to be a hit. Actually it stayed for 9 weeks at the top of the UK charts. So I hope you will enjoy the inimitable opera-rock style of Queen.

The second one is “Made in Heaven”, which belongs to the posthumous namesake 1995 album. This song may be less well-known than “Bohemian Rhapsody” but was also written by Freddie in the years prior to his death, when he was struggling with AIDS, and it shows his feelings near the end of his life. Unfortunately, Freddie died before Queen had finished recording the album “Made in Heaven” and the rest of the band concluded and published it in 1995.

If you are curious enough, you can find more information on Queen’s official website by clicking on this link.

Part Two: Twenty years now ...


I was a child when a friend of mine introduced Queen to me. I hardly knew a thing about this English rock band in that moment, but soon I became an unconditional fan. As I was listening to more and more music by Queen, Freddie Mercury’s voice seemed to have no limits; he was able to sing any kind of music, even opera with Montserrat Caballé!


Apart from Freddie’s voice, which many people believe was the only reason for Queen’s success, the rest of the members of the band were - and luckily still are - very good musicians. It was their combined hard work that made this band so successful. They transformed any music style in their own so you can identify a song is theirs from the very beginning. Besides, their videos were full of irony and imagination as well as revolutionary and controversial.


Finally, I don’t think not only did Queen change the way music videos were filmed, they also became a band the newer groups took into acount.


When the life of Freddie Mercury came to an end on 24th November 1991, the whole world was shocked. Who could imagine that only 24 hours after he had announced he suffered from AIDS he would be dead? I remember the next day we did not have to attend lessons at school because there was a teachers’ strike, so I was able to spend that morning with some friends; we all agreed that we would have liked to enjoy further albums by Queen.


In addition to yesterday’s post, I’d like to enclose one of the best songs Queen has ever written from my point of view, The Miracle, because it was one of the very first by Queen that I ever heard, so you may understand why I became fond on the band. I hope you will like it as much as I do. 


Sadly, the message of the song is suitable nowadays, but “one day you’ll see when we can all be friends”.