Freddie Mercury (September 5, 1946 - November 24, 1991), British musician, lead singer of Queen. Born on September 5, 1946 in Tanzania, East Africa.
Mercury is known for his high-pitched, brilliant voice and dramatic performance. He is also endowed with outstanding creative talents and has written many of Queen's legendary works, such as "Bohemian Rhapsody" Rhapsody), "We Are the Champions", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", etc. He died of pneumonia caused by AIDS on November 24, 1991, just one day after he made his illness public (November 23, 1991).
He is known as "Britain's first Asian rock star". In 2002, Mercury ranked 58th in a poll of the "100 Greatest Britons" held by the BBC. In 2006, Time Asia named him one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years.
He is consistently voted one of the greatest singers in the history of pop music. In 2005, Mercury was selected as the greatest male singer in history in a poll organized by the American television station MTV2 and the magazine "Blender". In 2008, the editor of "Rolling Stone" ranked him 18th among the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time". In 2009, he was voted the greatest rock singer of all time in a poll by Classic Rock magazine. The music guide website Allmusic called him "one of the greatest artists in rock history" and had "one of the greatest voices in all of music."
Creative Features
Queen's first greatest hits album "Greatest Hits" is also the highest-selling album in British history. Among the 17 songs, 10 were written by him: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "We Are The Champions", "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy" , "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Play the Game".
One of the characteristics of his compositions is the integration of extremely rich types of musicality. Common piano music, rock, heavy metal rock and disco music, etc. This feature is most evident in "Bohemian Rhapsody". Although his compositions are musically complex, he once mentioned that he could hardly read music. He usually composes on the piano.
Singing style
His vocal range spans approximately four octaves (F2-E6). His voice usually falls in the baritone range when he speaks, but when he sings he often stretches his range to tenor. Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, who collaborated with him on the album "Barcelona", even described his singing style: "The biggest difference between Freddie and almost all other rock singers is... ..He was 'selling' his voice. "He got vocal cord nodules, which is another story.
Performer
He is known for his theatrical flamboyance and is often cited as one of the greatest performers in the history of pop music. Singer David Bowie, who participated in the Freddie Mercury tribute concert and recorded the "Under Pressure" single with Queen, described him this way: "Of all the rock singers who have reached a dramatic level of performance, , Freddie is still far ahead of everyone else.”… “I’ve only seen him in action once, and it turned out that he was a capable person. The man who holds the audience in the palm of his hand.”
One of his most influential performances was the 1985 "Live Aid" benefit performance for Africa held at Wembley Stadium, with an audience of approximately 72,000. In the decades that followed, the performance continued to be rated as one of the greatest rock and roll performances in history.
During his career, he performed about 700 concerts with Queen. Another characteristic of Queen’s performances is their scale – “We are the Cecil B. DeMille of rock ‘n’ roll, always wanting to do things bigger and better. ." Queen was also the first group to perform in a South American giant arena.