A young Freddie Mercury, posing with a Sports Trophy taken in 1958, St. Peters School, Panchgani, India. Born Farrokh Bulsara, he began using the name "Freddie"....

A young Freddie Mercury, posing with a Sports Trophy taken in 1958, St. Peters School, Panchgani, India. Born Farrokh Bulsara, he began using the name "Freddie" because friends and teachers found Farrokh hard to pronounce.

Freddie Mercury was ethnically Parsi and held British citizenship, but he spent a significant part of his childhood in India. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were from the Parsi community of Gujarat, India, but they had migrated to Zanzibar for his father's government job. He spent ages 8 to 16 living, studying, and forming his first musical identity in India.

Freddie Mercury’s transformation from Farrokh Bulsara to the frontman of Queen began when his family fled the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution for Middlesex, England, where the 17-year-old enrolled in art college and immersed himself in the London music scene.

While studying graphic design, he befriended musicians Brian May and Roger Taylor of the band Smile, officially joining them as lead vocalist in 1970 after their original singer departed.

Driven by a fierce artistic vision, he convinced his bandmates to rename the group Queen, designed their iconic royal crest logo using his art school training, and legally changed his own surname to Mercury—inspired by a line about Mother Mercury in his early song "My Fairy King"—fully shedding his childhood identity to become a legendary British rock icon.

Video. Freddie Mercury thanks his fans. Japan, 1975.