His parents were of Parsis descent from Bombay (now Mumbai), India and he was sent to boarding school in India, where he grew up.

At the age of seventeen he and his family left Tanzania and settled in Britain.

In 1970, he formed the band Queen with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor.

Queen is one of the most successful bands of the 1970s and 1980s.

Mercury wrote most of the hit songs that the band recorded and a few that he recorded solo.

He died in 1991 from bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS after admitting to having the disease just the day before.

His death made him even more popular with Queen’s music sales sky rocketing in 1992.

Source: South African History Online

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