I don’t normally post bands like Queen in this group…universally acknowledged as one of the biggest and most successful rock bands in the world since the early 1970s until the present day. I got to thinking about founder member and frontman of the band…Freddie Mercury..who was quite phenomenally talented as a musician and a born showman.
Freddie sadly died in 1991 and they never found a permanent replacement for the irrepressible force of nature that he was. It’s interesting that Freddie was the only member of the band who wasn’t English born, he was in fact born in Zanzibar, Tanzania to Parsi/Indian parents in 1946, but the family emigrated to England and settled in Middlesex in 1964. It was a happy day for lovers of Queen’s music that Freddie met up with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor in 1970 and formed Queen, Freddie becoming the principal song writer of the band, penning such hits as Bohemian Rhapsody, Killer Queen, Don’t Stop Me Now…and this one - We Are The Champions…amongst many others.
….live at Milton Keynes, England in 1982…
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5 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I wonder if his parents hadn't migrated if he would have still achieved what he did?
FrayedBear
Level 9
May 3, 2024
1
I think I’d say a definite no to that!
@Marionville there was a synergy within the group proven by the group's collapse after Freddy's death.
@FrayedBear They didn’t collapse after his death…they have continued to perform concerts with other lead vocalists as guest singers. What they haven’t done is replaced him with a permanent new band member.
@Marionville all admittedly inferior. . . The synergy no longer exists.
Thanks. It was probably high time that I heard Queen.
rogerbenham
Level 8
May 2, 2024
4
Long overdue I’d say!
IMO not his best. But probably a contributor to world folk music now & in the future.
@FrayedBear Folk music? Maybe in some future century it’ll become a folk song classic… but today it’s called Rock n Roll and definitely considered to be one of Freddie’s best!
@Marionville although sung in original copyright form the fact that it has been sung by millions around the world probably make it the preeminent folk song that the world has ever known possibly only surpassed by some of the religious songs.
Zanaibar's a very poor place and when I traveled there, I thought a lot about Freddie and his gift which took him from selling spices in markets to controlling hundreds of thousands of screaming fans with just a flip of his wrist! If anyone wanted to make a case for ''divine intervention'', it'd be Freddie...from out of Zanzibar to those concerts...well....
pamagain
Level 8
May 2, 2024
4
The closest I’ve been to Zanzibar is the Kenyan coast…I’d imagine Mombasa to be quie similar..very poor yet very happy and hospitable people!
@Marionville It's very Muslim...I was struck by seeing no women in the food markets...not selling/not buying. I wondered what they were thinking about Freddie.
@pamagain There’s quite a Muslim element in the port city of Mombsa too, that east coast of Africa where the Arabs traded across the Indian Ocean is where large populations of Muslims settled. I doubt if they think much about Freddie, I don’t think they’re all that into western rock music in that part of the world…especially the Muslim parts!
@Marionville You're right, of course, since Islam discourages any music. I'd like to think young people would admire Freddie....he was definitely a rule-breaker.
I will never not miss Freddie!
annewimsey500
Level 8
May 2, 2024
5
I know…there’s a big club of us! 🥲
@Marionville Thanks for posting this....
Ditto! He was a musical treasure! 
What a loss he is. I think I'm one of the few who didn't find Adam Lambert to be a satisfactory replacement for Freddie, and I respect the band's refusal to continue if it made them less than what they were. Until that abominable disease, he did pretty well, that little boy from Zanzibar.
Lauren
Level 8
May 2, 2024
3
Yes…I agree, I didn’t actually like Adam Lambert much as a replacement either, he’s just not much to my liking as a singer even if he is popular with many other people. .
@Marionville Perhaps that's indicative of why I like your music selections here so much! 
@Lauren Yes…kindred spirits musically speaking!
NOBODY could ''replace'' him! Adam tried, but.....nah.