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eventREF E-0090679Revised

Event record

Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa.

Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa.

Date
5 Sep 1946
Updated
30 Sep 2019
Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa.

Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar, East Africa. His parents were Parsis from Bombay (now Mumbai), India. Mercury was sent to boarding school in India and grew up there. At the age of seventeen he and his family left Zanzibar and settled in Britain. In 1970, he formed the band Queen with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Queen was one of the most successful bands of the 1970s and 1980s. Mercury wrote most of the hit songs that the band recorded and a few that he recorded solo. He was also a good pianist, having taken lessons from a young age. He died in 1991 from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS; he had just admitted to having the disease the day before. His death made him even more popular with Queen’s music sales sky rocketing in 1992.

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How we know this

  1. 01Biography.  Freddie Mercury. Bio  [online]. Available at: www.biography.com[Accessed on 25 August 2013]
  2. 02Prato G.  Artist Biography by Greg Prato. From AllMusic [online].Available at: www.allmusic.com[Accessed on 25 August 2013]   

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2012, August 14). Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa.. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0090679

South African History Online (2012) 'Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa.', South African History Online, 14 August. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0090679 (Accessed: 3 August 2026).

South African History Online, Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa. [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0090679, (accessed 3 August 2026).

"Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa.." South African History Online, 14 Aug. 2012, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0090679. Accessed 3 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "Freddie Mercury [Bulsara], singer and songwriter, is born in  Zanzibar, Africa.." South African History Online. August 14, 2012. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0090679.

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