Happy birthday, Freddie Mercury: 8 things you did not know about the Queen singer and rock legend
Today, September 5, marks the 72nd birthday of one of the greatest legends and the most recognizable voices in rock history - Freddie Mercury.
While the world knows and remembers him as Freddie Mercury, the exuberant and flamboyant frontman of Queen, he was actually a shy, reserved character off the stage, born Farrokh Bulsara, on September 5, 1946, in the British protectorate of Zanzibar to Parsi parents of Indian heritage. With his famous four-octave vocal range, Freddie gave us unforgettable rock anthems like 'We Will Rock You' and 'We Are The Champions', and of course the gloriously incomparable 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.
A naturally gifted performer, Freddie is well known for his ability to command crowds that filled up stadiums, keeping them engaged through every second with his inimitable on-stage theatrics and shock art. Most notably, during 'The Game Tour' with Queen in 1981, the band broke all records at São Paulo in Brazil setting the world record for the biggest paying audience at 131,000 people. Three years later, they broke their own record at the Rock in Rio festival—in which Freddie and the gang appeared on stage at two o'clock in the morning in front of 470,000 people during the first night and 250,000 on the second.
