15 facts about the life of Freddie Mercury and his band Queen, 30 years after the death of the artist

(CNN) – Freddie Mercury is one of the most important artists in the history of rock in the world. 30 years have passed since his death, but his legacy lives on.

Mercury died on November 24, 1991 in Kensington, London, after a successful career with the group Queen, with which, in less than a decade, he achieved rock legend status.

Some facts about the life and career of Freddie Mercury

1. Freddie Mercury, whose birth name was Farrokh Bulsara, was born on September 5, 1946 in Stone Town, Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous island off the coast of Tanzania.

2. The Bulsara family were Parsis from India, followers of Zoroastrianism, an ancient Persian religion.

3. Young Farrokh is believed to have started singing in the city’s Zoroastrian Temple when he was a child. At that time, there were about 300 members of the Parsi community in Zanzibar. Today, only a few remain, and the temple has been abandoned for a long time.

4. Mercury spent most of his childhood in Zanzibar and attended boarding school in India. In the early 1960s, his family moved to the UK.

5. In the early 1970s, Mercury created the band Queen with guitarist Brian May, drummer Roger Taylor, and bassist John Deacon. His bandmates describe him as generous, absolutely devoted to music, and as a very caring person.

Queen in 1976

6. In 1980 Queen released “Another one bites the dust”, one of the band’s best-selling singles. The following year, in 1981, they released the compilation album Greatest Hits, which was their best-selling album in the UK.

7. Freddie Mercury was a magnetic artist who drove his fans crazy with his charisma and vocal prowess on songs like Bohemian Rapsody. His wardrobe, suits usually close to the body, helped to seduce and fascinate his audience.

8. Mercury planned his performances carefully. In an interview, the artist said that after each presentation he would do extensive research and consult with his closest advisers for new ideas.

9. Despite having an overwhelming personality on stage, Mercury was said to be shy off stage, especially around people he did not know.

10. His bisexuality was not a secret from those close to him, but Mercury kept his relationships with men and women private. He never married, but had long romantic relationships.

11. The final cause of death the death of Freddie Mercury, which occurred at age 45, on November 24, 1991, has been attributed to bronchopneumonia, caused by HIV.

12. There is an asteroid named after him. The leader of the legendary band, who sang “I’m a shooting star leaping through the sky” in the song “Don’t stop me now”, was honored by the International Astronomical Union of Little Planets (IAU) renamed the asteroid 17473, which was discovered in 1991, the year the singer died, in honor of Mercury.

1982 (Fox Photos / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

13. The biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody starred Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury. It recounts the time between the formation of the Queen band and the iconic concert at Wimbley Stadium in 1985, with a historic performance by Mercury.

14. In 2011 Google celebrated what would have been Mercury’s 65th birthday with a doodle from the Queen song ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’.

15. A museum honoring Mercury was opened in 2020 in Zanzibar, the place where Farrokh Bulsara was born. The museum stands in the so-called Casa Mercury, a former home of the Bulsara family.