Queen's Freddie Mercury exhibit reveals Bohemian Rhapsody draft

Jul 26, 2023

A new exhibition at Sotheby's Auction House in London shows some original notes Freddie Mercury made of the famous Queen anthem, Bohemian Rhapsody. The notes revealed the original name for the song and some of the workshopped lyrics.

The original notes were written in black and blue ink and pencil on stationery from the now defunct airline British Midland Airways. The original name for the song was Mongolian Rhapsody, but it was crossed out and replaced with the iconic Bohemian Rhapsody. Mercury didn't note why he made the change. But as of now, the Queen song has been sold and streamed over a mullion times in the US and more than four billion times globally on Spotify and YouTube, per People.

The lyrics for the song cover 15 pages, but many are also crossed out and redone, as any writing process goes. On one page, the second verse of the hit song originally went: "Mama, There's a war began, I've got to leave tonight." However, this was ultimately replaced with: "Mama, I just killed a man."

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Other song manuscripts from the collection include drafts for Don't Stop Me Now, Somebody to Love, and We Are the Champions. The lyrics and manuscripts are part of a collection of more than 1,500 of Mercury's items, including clothing and artwork. The collection is called Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own and will be auctioned in London in September.

In a Sotheby release statement, Mercury's close friend Mary Austin, who has held on to the late singer's belongings, shared: "For many years now, I have had the joy and privilege of living surrounded by all the wonderful things that Freddie sought out and so loved. But the years have passed, and the time has come for me to take the difficult decision to close this very special chapter in my life."