The king of Queen: How Freddie Mercury became somebody we all love

Other projects - Released in 1985 while Queen was on hiatus from recording, 'Mr. Bad Guy,' Freddie Mercury's first and only solo album, was a commercial flop. More successful was his 1988 collaboration with the late Montserrat Caballé, 'Barcelona,' which spawned the theme for the 1992 Summer Olympics.

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Live Aid - But 1985 also saw Queen's performance at Live Aid, which is considered one of the best live performances in the history of rock. Indeed, Queen is regarded as one of the greatest stadium rock bands ever, regularly performing to crowds of over 100,000.

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'A Kind of Magic' - Improving on the last albums but not the commercial success of times past, 'A Kind of Magic' is the last album Freddie Mercury would promote with a concert tour. The track 'Who Wants to Live Forever' is off this album, released a year before Mercury's AIDS diagnosis.

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AIDS diagnosis - According to Freddie Mercury's longtime partner Jim Hutton, the singer was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987. His Queen band members knew, but Mercury largely kept his diagnosis private, this despite stories from the press.

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Death - On November 24, 1991, only a day after publicly revealing he indeed had AIDS, Freddie Mercury died at the age of 45 from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. Although he never came out, he is nonetheless widely considered an iconic LGBT music artist.

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Last works - Prior to his death, Freddie Mercury and Queen released 'The Miracle' and 'Innuendo.' 'Made in Heaven,' released posthumously in 1995, featured some of Mercury's lyrics, vocals, and him speaking.

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Other works - Freddie Mercury had also previously released solo singles, and, besides studio albums (which include the soundtrack to 'Flash Gordon'), Queen released many live and compilation albums, the latter of which include 'Greatest Hits,' the best-selling album of all time in the UK.

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'Bohemian Rhapsody' -

In 2018, Freddie Mercury was brought to life on the big screen by Rami Malek, who won the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance. The film, which was nominated for Best Picture, also has the distinction of being the highest-grossing music biopic of all time.

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Queen + -

As for Queen, the band continued to make music following Mercury's death. John Deacon retired in 1997, and the band rebranded as Queen + in 2004. They began touring extensively, notably with Paul Rodgers (from 2004 to 2009) and since 2011 with Adam Lambert.

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The king of Queen: How Freddie Mercury became somebody we all love

Freddie Mercury would have turned 75 this year on September 5

01/09/21 | StarsInsider

CELEBRITY Retrospective

He's widely considered one of the best voices of our time and one of the greatest front men in the history of rock: we're talking, of course, about Freddie Mercury.

Born in Zanzibar (then a British protectorate) to Parsi parents from India, the world would come to know Freddie Mercury as the lead singer of Queen. Together they sold millions of records worldwide, performed to crowds of hundreds of thousands, and even pioneered music videos with 'Bohemian Rhapsody.'

The accolades kept coming in for Queen and Freddie Mercury even after his death from complications related to AIDS in 1991. For instance, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Queen in 2001.

But all this doesn't even begin to cover the story of Freddie Mercury's life and career. For a more in-depth look, featuring vintage photos, click through this new gallery.