Known to you and I as Freddie Mercury, today is the 20th anniversary of his death.
As singer of the English rock group Queen, Freddie became the western world's most celebrated singer and showman to this day. Indeed, even in death his album sales are said to have doubled and even to have eclipsed those of The Beatles.
Mercury was born on the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were Parsis from the Gujarati region of the then province of Bombay Presidency in British India. The family surname is derived from the town of Bulsar (also known as Valsad) in southern Gujarat. As Parsis, the family practiced the Zoroastrian religion. The family had moved to Zanzibar in order for his father to continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. Mercury attended St. Peter's School, a boarding school for boys in Panchgani near Bombay (now Mumbai), India
Watch this wonderful video which shows Freddie's Indian childhood. It is strange that in life, he played down his Indian roots so much, and in death he has not been reclaimed by the Indian community. Or that the man in the street doesn't know the world's greatest rock star was...Indian!
As singer of the English rock group Queen, Freddie became the western world's most celebrated singer and showman to this day. Indeed, even in death his album sales are said to have doubled and even to have eclipsed those of The Beatles.
Mercury was born on the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were Parsis from the Gujarati region of the then province of Bombay Presidency in British India. The family surname is derived from the town of Bulsar (also known as Valsad) in southern Gujarat. As Parsis, the family practiced the Zoroastrian religion. The family had moved to Zanzibar in order for his father to continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. Mercury attended St. Peter's School, a boarding school for boys in Panchgani near Bombay (now Mumbai), India
Watch this wonderful video which shows Freddie's Indian childhood. It is strange that in life, he played down his Indian roots so much, and in death he has not been reclaimed by the Indian community. Or that the man in the street doesn't know the world's greatest rock star was...Indian!
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