Happy Birthday Freddie Mercury
To Freddie,
If you aren’t aware, today would have been your 73rd birthday. I think the reason why we celebrate you today more than ever is because you aren’t here to celebrate it yourself. There are no flamboyant parties that would even come to close to the ones you threw on a weekly (and sometimes daily) basis, but there’s nobody like you that will ever exist again to it’s reasonably logical.
You know, I may not have been alive to experience the wonders of Freddie, but I think I can imagine slightly what is must have been like - absolutely wonderful.
I miss you, so much it’s painful because perhaps you are the outstanding person that can make me feel just that little bit better about myself. I remember and still witness people on TV make jokes and take the piss out of your ‘donkey teeth’, and it breaks my heart but somehow I find a slightly comforting because I myself have never accepted the gap in my teeth for what they are, despite being told it’s ‘nothing’; until I began to admire you and at this very moment, I’m slowly starting to accept and love them for what they are.
I think another thing that amazes me about you is your ability to make and sing music that is completely ahead of your time. I think just about everybody belts our their hearts to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ when they hear it and that kind of energy and passion is completely universal, just like yourself. I remember when I first started listening to Queen beyond their hits and truly got a taste of how authenticity really works. It was February, I’d just finished watching Bo Rhap and although I’d listened to you quite a fair few times, this time was more sentimental.
And then I listened to Queen like it was the only music left in the world - non stop for 6 months and I’m still listening as I write. The sentimentality of it remains raw because it opened me up to the wonders of older music. Ms. Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, and from that bands like Pulp, the Police, and so many more. It opened me up to freedom of expression, fashion, and how one person can absolutely change the world at their fingertips. It’s astonishing how one person can show you that okay, it’s positively okay to stand out. But it’s also funny now that one person can make you feel completely comfortable with yourself when they themselves weren’t.
Ironically, you aren’t even British yet sound more British than most of us here. I find it wonderful how you were able to enter this country and make a living, and be accepted and be at peace with your family. If little Freddie was here then I think his mind would be blown at the effect and legacy you’ve left on this world, it’s universally uplifting.
You are timeless. I cannot simply explain how wonderful you are in a short paragraph so I think that phrase is somewhat suitable at this point in time. You are legendary and you have no possible idea of how many people you’ve helped to become, them. Arguably a face for the kaleidoscope of the LGBTQ+ community, you’ve enhanced people’s passion all over the planet. Whether it’s musically, visually, through literature and writing or mathematically; it’s absolutely wonderful. Now, I could write an essay, or perhaps a book on the wonders of Freddie Mercury but I will say this:
Happy birthday Farrokh Bulsara; you are a green leaf in the midst of a winter storm, thank you for absolutely everything you have been and taught me about so many things. If I could bring you back I would without hesitation. I miss you.