I had always loved Queen growing up, and at some point someone told me that Freddy Mercury, their beloved frontman, was Iranian. The swell of pride I felt! “This powerful, charismatic and talented man is from Iran! Ahh, finally, a contemporary Iranian in the arts, and the whole world knows him.” I thought all of these things. Until Wikipedia came along and taught me that he was in fact, Pars.
The Pars people are Zoroastrians who live in South Asia. Pars sounds alot like Persia and alot like Farsi, and since it’s all from the same confusing part of the world, I can see how it gets jumbled. Especially since Pars means Iran in Farsi, and Zoroastrianism is associated with Iran. And what’s Zoroastrian? This is a longer post then I planned!
The point is, that I still love Freddy Mercury, especially when sporting a mustache and striding across the stage like he owns the world (see the LiveAid performance above). Freddy Mercury died 19 years ago today, from complications due to AIDS. I wish he was still around to make music.