Did Freddie Mercury’s Teeth Make Him Sing Better?
Freddie Mercury’s teeth are perhaps one of the most prominent teeth in the whole music history. The life of Farrokh Bulsara, better known as Freddie Mercury, began on the East African island of Zanzibar on September 5, 1946. But, what happened with his teeth? Why, out of a sudden, has his teeth become a hot topic on social media and everywhere?
Well, we believe that thanks to “Bohemian Rhapsody,” a biopic about his life released in October of 2018, all about him became a trend. The movie is set in the ’70s, telling a little bit of one of the most famous rockstars ever. Today, we are going to talk about one singular aspect of the lead singer of Queen.
Freddie Mercury had a genetic dental condition that apparently, left him with four extra teeth in his mouth. This condition gave him a unique appearance, and later, Freddie Mercury’s extra teeth became part of his trademark. These extra teeth were crowing the rest, pushing his front teeth forward.
Freddie Mercury's Teeth
The truth is that this iconic performer had four extra teeth in the back of his mouth. Mercury was aware of his dental issues, and he could have them fixed if he wanted to because he surely could have afforded any dental solution.
However, even though his large overbite was usually a cause of embarrassment, Freddie Mercury believed that his teeth were responsible for his incredible talent. He thought that fixing his overbite would hurt his voice.
Peter Freestone
Peter Freestone, his personal assistant, and a close friend couldn’t help but notice that this condition was causing embarrassment to Freddie.
“He always covered his teeth with his top lip or raised his hand to cover them,” Freestone said.
People said that Freddie even grew his iconic mustache to drive all the attention to it instead of his prominent bite. And as mentioned, even when people might think that with all the fame and fortune that the Queen’s lead singer had in life, he could afford to fix his smile, there were different reasons for Freddie not to do it when he was still alive.
And How Come Freddie Never Fixed his Teeth?
As we already established, Freddie Mercury’s teeth caused embarrassment to the lead singer of Queen. However, he was very afraid of fixing his teeth because he firmly believed that this would change his voice forever.
He thought that his singular and powerful voice would go away if he pulled his teeth out. It wasn’t because of the money. He certainly had it; he just preferred not to take the risk of losing his voice.
You may wonder how a man who was bullied at school because of his teeth wouldn’t want to fix the problem as soon as possible when he had enough money. Well, he just loved his music more than his looks.
Farrokh Bulsara (the real name of Freddie), was a baritone. A difficult vocal range to reach.
He produced his tones from ventricular chords also called fake vocal cords, a technique used by classical musicians. He had an uncommon voice. According to an Australian scientist, Mercury had incredible control over his voice and made her vocal strings vibrate faster than any other artist. It’s a fact that he had more teeth than any average lead singer.
Rami Malek Challenge to Portrait Freddie Mercury
One of the biggest challenges of the Emmy-winning star of the TV drama, “Mr. Robot, wasn’t Freddie Mercury. For Rami Malek, the most challenging part of the role was practicing with the false set of teeth that was made to emulate Freddie Mercury’s overbite. He practiced with the prosthetic teeth one year before shooting “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Studied Freddie's movements
The actor studied the movements of Freddie, strutting the stage presence of the artist. Malek also learned how to emulate his posture and elegance, along with facial gestures. The facial part imitated Freddie Mercury’s extra teeth gesticulation and singing poses. Malek told The Wrap: “They started out being pretty difficult to deal with. We tried out all different sizes, and when they first went in, I felt very insecure, but immediately I compensated. Physically, I started to sit with more posture and elegance, and I thought, ‘Oh, he is so elegant!’.”
Did Freddie Mercury’s Teeth Help him to Sing Better?
Freddie Mercury’s teeth are responsible for his extraordinary magic voice, or that is what the lead singer thought. As it turns out, the singular voice of this remarkable singer has been studied because of course something was astonishing about it. However, scientists nor specialists have discovered a relationship between his overbite and his incredible voice.
But, what if Freddie hadn’t had a fear of losing his voice and had fixed his teeth? Would he have lost his voice and prodigious talent? What would it have meant for Queen? We are going to dismiss those ideas and what-if scenarios because we simply aren’t going to get any answers, ever. The truth is that this fantastic performer is a legend and will remain alive forever in the music industry and our hearts, despite his extra teeth or his overbite.