Richardine Bartee
Freddie Mercury honored in the best way possible.
Born on September 5, 1946, Tanzanian-born legendary recording artist Freddie Mercury would have been 70 this year. Yesterday Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May made the announcement. An asteroid that orbits Mars and Jupiter now carries his name. According to The Guardian, the asteroid is approximately half a billion kilometers away from Planet Earth. The announcement came by way of a via video message to 1,200 guests at the “Freddie for a Day” function at the Montreux Casino on Lake Geneva shoreline in Switzerland.
May said the following in a statement, “I’m happy to be able to announce that the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center has today designated Asteroid 17473, discovered 1991, in Freddie’s name, timed to honor his 70th Birthday. Henceforth this object will be known as Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury.”
British rocker Freddie Mercury died of AIDS in the early 90s. He is best known for his four-octave vocal range. Some other entertainers who have that range in common are Beyoncé, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, Tevin Campbell, Hayley Williams, Leona Lewis, Jill Scott and Cyndi Lauper. Whitney Houston was also a four-octave vocal range singer.
Some time ago it was revealed that Sacha Baron Cohen would portray the megastar in a biopic. However due to “creative differences,” Cohen is no longer going to play the role. He detailed the reasons through an interview with Howard Stern earlier this year.
Rolling Stone reports on the matter handsomely:
“There are amazing stories about Freddie Mercury,” Cohen said on The Howard Stern Show Tuesday. “The guy was wild. I mean he was living an extreme lifestyle. There are stories of… little people with plates with cocaine on their heads walking around a party.”
Cohen, however, said he understood why the surviving members of Queen wanted a more PG-rated version of the film that vaunted the band’s legacy. But the actor also admitted he should’ve known from his first meeting with the band that creative differences would arise.
“A member of the band, I won’t say who, he said, ‘This is such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie,'” Cohen recalled. “I go, ‘What happens in the middle of the movie?’ He goes, ‘Freddie dies.'” While Cohen assumed the band meant the film would be structured non-linearly like Pulp Fiction, he soon realized that they wanted the second half of the film to focus on how Queen carried on after Mercury’s death in 1991.
Since reports have stated that Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter would replace Sacha Baron Cohen. On a music tip, Queen songs — “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Under Pressure”, “We Will Rock You” and much more — have been sampled so many times that you could never tell me you are [knowingly] unfamiliar with their influence on pop culture.
On another note, I can easily be the Mary Austin to my Freddie Mercury. We can be an undying love story, even in death.
