Freddie Mercury Might Have Been One of the World’s Greatest Performers and Here’s Why
Now, I don’t even remember the first time I heard Freddie Mercury’s music or what reaction I had at first, but as I grew up, I started to appreciate it more and more. As I fell in love with music overall, I also started seeing him in a light I hadn’t before.
His thunderous but seraphic voice and the everlasting mark he left on the world and the music industry are probably known by almost everyone. And the thing is, if you peek more into him and his work, you’ll find that he actually deserves all this recognition and more. “I won’t be a rock star. I will be a legend,” he once stated, and he wasn’t wrong. He did become a legend. He became one of the most powerful musicians of all time; with his music, his performances, and his style.
But of course, he didn’t start out as a legend. Sure, he was always quite talented, but the first few bands he joined didn’t really take off. His main band Queen’s debut album “Queen” aired in 1973, pushing Mercury and his bandmates into a world of fame.
They had many hit songs throughout the late 70s and early 80s, some of the firsts being “Sheer Heart Attack” and “A Night at the Opera” from their 1974 and 1975 albums.
After a while Queen’s fame and talent reached their peak, Freddie Mercury was quite used to having an elaborate lifestyle and made the most of it. He liked collecting art and never said “no” to a chance to party.
But, unfortunately, after almost two decades of fame, Mercury quit the prominent lifestyle. He was diagnosed with AIDS and recorded one last album before passing away at the age of 45, the reason being bronchial pneumonia.
Freddie Mercury was renowned both before and after his death, one of the reasons being his excessive musical talent and the way he gave his all to his music.
Mercury wasn’t just talented by ear; he was scientifically proven to be so. He could hit extremely high and low notes, making him an exceptional artist. He hits a lot of these high and low notes in Queen’s songs, his highest possible notes being a low bass F2 and highest being a soprano F6. Another reason why Mercury’s voice is extremely impressive is that his vocal range is 5–7 octaves and most tenors only have a 4-octave range. 7 octaves is an outstanding range, some even saying that it’s “impossible”, but there goes Freddie proving people wrong.
According to Lad Bible, “a team of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers found that the average vibrato varies from 5.4 Hz to 6.9 Hz; Mercury’s was 7.04 Hz,” meaning that he could switch between chords extremely fast, making him naturally more talented than most artists. He sang by using his vestibular folds as well as vibrating his vocal cords, which made Freddie Mercury’s “musical screaming” sound more angelic than ever.
It seems that Mercury was naturally gifted because it turns out the singer didn’t have any vocal training. Young Mercury (known as Farrokh Bulsara back then) would play records and sing along to them as best he could, and according to his mom, he was good even then.
Freddie Mercury’s only musical gift wasn’t his voice; he also had a knack for songwriting. When it comes to songwriting, Mercury is known as an “Experimental Genius”, as he “never really went into songwriting with a clear picture in his head”. Sometimes it would take him years to finish a song; and even then, he would still look back at them, as he was never fully satisfied.
He would work spontaneously with no clear goal or path, pouring his current feelings onto the paper. He would randomly get inspired at times, his assistant always being at his beck and call at those times. And maybe part of what made him such a genius and legend were these spur-of-the-moment ideas and his perfectionist personality.
“I write songs the way I feel it, if it means a song that I like needs something that is old fashion still do it,”
Queen’s most widely-known song “Bohemian Rhapsody” (which took the frontman years to write) is one of the best examples of the legend’s experimental and creative mind. The song with more than one billion streams contains multiple parts, almost sounding like different songs. The parts are significantly different, sounding like they don’t fit together. Yet, with the way the band conveys it, it makes up a perfect whole. I personally can’t listen to songs longer than four minutes and get bored easily, but with Bohemian Rhapsody and the way it’s so excellently composed, it sure does manage to keep me on my toes till the very end even after hearing it more times than I can count.
“I’d never let the song down, the song comes first,”
Although Mercury had an astounding voice, no artist can really make it in the industry without their fans, can they? Freddie knew exactly how to connect with fans and engage them through his performances. He always managed to keep the audience wanting more, once even throwing water on them and telling them that they could just “beat him up later” and pretending to play a guitar solo alongside Brian May.
He once stated “The reason we’re successful, darling? My overall charisma, of course,” and that was indeed true. Maybe not wholly, but there definitely was some truth behind it. Mercury was an overall charismatic man, which did come in handy when you were the band’s frontman.
His performances amplified this characteristic of his as he interacted with fans and gave it his all on the stage.
Freddie Mercury gave many performances, acing all of them no matter what the conditions were. But I think Queen’s Tokyo (1982) and Wembley (1986) performances (as well as many others) showed his true potential as a performer.
When Queen performed in Tokorozawa, Tokyo, they were near the end of their world tour, and most likely extremely exhausted. At least most people would think so, but even if they were, Mercury hid it perfectly. He dominated the stage and the audience, as usual, rocking out and providing the fans with his all. It was January in Japan then, both the cold and the fatigue caused Mercury’s voice to crack at times, but he still delivered one hell of a show.
The band’s Wembley performance was even more impressive than Mercury’s determination and fervor in the Tokyo one. During this concert, the band put on such a show that they got to make it into a whole new album. But the most impressive part was Mercury’s vocal improvisation bit. This call-and-response game with the audience emphasized the creative mind of the band’s frontman as well as his vocal range and chemistry with the audience.
“Dullness is a disease,”
Mercury must’ve lived by his own quote because there seemed to be absolutely nothing dull about the whimsical man. He lived his life to the fullest, saying that the most important thing was “to live a fabulous life” no matter how long it is.
And this “fullness” was also included in his style. He engraved his mark in the world by rejecting the gender stereotypes that came with being a man and making rock music in the 70s and 80s. He was one of the most influential celebrities to cross-dress in those decades.
After he came out as gay in the 80s and got inspired by New York’s gay clubs and changed his style. He started wearing studded belts, grew a moustache, and cut his hair short, but continued wearing his signature tight clothes.
“It’s not a concert you are seeing, it’s a fashion show,”
The frontman had many androgynous outfits, each one even more fabulous than the last. Zandra Rhodes designed most of his outfits, never failing to make Mercury look astonishing.
The renowned white batwing outfit of Mercury’s was created by her as well. Turns out, Freddie’s creative mind also had a knack for fashion, because when he saw a wedding dress that Rhodes was working on, he immediately fell in love with the top part, causing Rhodes to cut it and give it to him.
Mercury was also known for his full-length tight bodysuits. The frontman always looked iconic in these outfits and apparently they also helped him move easier on stage. So, he wasn’t only fashionable but also thought about the practicality of his stunning outfits. He really was legendary, it seems.
“I dress to kill, but tastefully.”
The fashion icon himself was also extremely passionate about clothes. He apparently went to art school and once even worked at a clothes stall as a teenager.
Maybe it was his passion for clothes that made him such a huge icon, and maybe not, but the man sure knew how to dress. His style was genderless as well as timeless, but most of all, it was brave. Revolutionary. The designer of the movie based on Mercury’s life, “Bohemian Rhapsody” Julian Day stated, “.. back then, to dress like that onstage and in public, it’s easy to forget how radical that was.”
He helped reshape the whole music industry to the way it is now, freer and more unique. Now celebrities like Lil Nas X can follow in his footsteps.
“I always knew I was a star, and now the rest of the world seems to agree with me.”
The frontman was an enthralling person all along; an icon of music, performing, and style. He was remarkable both as an individual and as the brilliant star he made of himself. Besides being absolutely engrossing, Mercury was extremely inspiring and powerful, both when he was alive and currently. He really knew how to leave an everlasting mark on the world. Maybe it was intentional or maybe not, but he managed to be both a living legend then and an immortal one now. Because even years after he died, his show is still going on.
