Mercury was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Africa .

 

 

His parents  were Parsis and as Parsis, Mercury and his family practised the Zoroastrian religion. They had moved to Zanzibar so that the father could continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. He had a younger sister, Kashmira.

 

 

Mercury spent the bulk of his childhood in India and began taking piano lessons at the age of seven. In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at a British-style boarding school for boys near Bombay. One of his formative musical influences at the time was Bollywood singer Lata Mangeshkar. Aged 12, he formed a school band and covered rock and roll artists such as Cliff Richard and Little Richard. A friend from the time recalls that he had "an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano".At the age of 17, Mercury and his family fled from Zanzibar for safety reasons and moved into a small house in Feltham, England. Mercury enrolled at Polytechnic where he studied art and  earned a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design, later using these skills to design the “Queen” crest. Mercury remained a British citizen for the rest of his life.

 

 

Following graduation, Mercury joined a series of bands and sold second-hand clothes in the Kensington Market in London. He also held a job at Heathrow Airport.

 

 

 In 1969 - 1970 he made several attempts to join bands that failed off.

 

 

In April 1970, Mercury joined the guitarist Brian May and the drummer Roger Taylor who had previously been in a band called Smile. Despite reservations from the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the new band. He later said about the band's name, "I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it". At about the same time, he changed his surname, Bulsara, to Mercury.