Freddy Mercury

       Today I'm going to talk about one of my favorite artist, Freddy Mercury. Born September 5, 1946. Mercury was a British musician, singer, and song writer. Most know Freddy Mercury as the lead vocalist of the band Queen.

     Queen had a ton of hits such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to love", "We are the champions", "Under pressure". As a live performer Mercury delivered to stadiums and audiences around the world. He displayed a highly theatrical style that often evoked a great deal of particepation from the crowd. Writers described him as "A performer out to tease, shock, and ultimately charm his audience with multiple extravagant versions of himself". He was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand. Queen guitarist Brian May said that Mercury could make the last person at the back of the furthest stand in a stadium feel that he was connected. Over the course of his career Mercury performed an estimated 700 concerts in country's all over the world. The band was the first ever to play in South American stadiums, breaking world records for concert attendance in the Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo, in 1981.

      In 1986 Queen also played behind the Iron Curtain when the performed to a crowd of 80,000 in Budapest, in what was one of the biggest rock concerts ever held in Eastern Europe. Mercury's final live performance with Queen took place on August 9, 1986 at Knebworth park in England and drew an attendance estimated as high as 300,000.

     As a young boy in India, Mercury received piano training up to the age of 9. Later on, while living in London, he learned guitar. Much of the music he liked was guitar-oriented, his favorite artist at the time were The Who, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin. In 1987, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS, died November 24, 1991 at the age of 45 in him home in London, England.