Izvini sto sam nasao na engleskom, a usput ovo je samo jedan od mnogo tekstova ali jedan od prvih koje sam nasao o njemu.
Criticism and controversy
[edit] Regarding sexual orientation
Mercury has been criticized for his unwillingness to publicly acknowledge both his sexual orientation as well as his Indian background. Critics have noted that he never formally acknowledged his sexuality to the public. Others criticized Mercury's reluctance to admit his HIV status, saying that this gave the message to many fans that AIDS was a shameful disease. It was further suggested that Mercury could have raised a great deal of money by speaking truthfully and honestly about his situation and his fight against AIDS.[41][42] On the other hand, much awareness was also made possible as a result of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, which was broadcast around the world. Shortly after his death, pop star Phil Collins said about Mercury,"I have the greatest admiration and a lot of affection for him. But if you go around living a pretty much promiscuous life, as he did, you always run the risk of AIDS."[43]
[edit] Regarding ethnicity
Mercury has further been criticized for having kept his Indian ethnicity a secret from the public. Bandmate Roger Taylor suggested that Mercury downplayed his heritage simply because the singer did not feel that it would fit well with his public persona. [44] A similar sentiment was expressed by another one of Freddie's close friends, who related to biographer David Brett: "Faroukh Bulsara was a name he had buried. He never wanted to talk about any period in his life before he became Freddie Mercury, and everything about Freddie Mercury was a self-constructed thing." [45] A more critical journalist from Times Online wrote, "Curiously, people are horrified that Michael Jackson should be in such denial of his ethnic origins and yet don’t mind Mercury doing the same thing." [46]
[edit] Criticism from rock critics
Although Queen was always highly successful on a commercial level, the band often received poor reviews from rock music critics in magazines such as the "NME" and "Rolling Stone." Beginning in the 1970s, many of these critics embraced the newly emerging punk rock movement and felt that Queen albums were full of over-produced songs. [47] One Rolling Stone critic expressed his opinion that many of the songs on the band's 1974 Queen II album (largely written by Mercury) featured "histrionic vocals, abrupt and pointless compositional complexity, and a dearth of melody."[48]
[edit] Controversies
Mercury and Queen were widely criticized in the 1980s for the fact that they broke a United Nations cultural boycott by performing a series of shows at Sun City, an entertainment complex in apartheid South Africa. As a result of these shows, Queen were placed on a United Nations list of blacklisted artists and was widely criticized in magazines such as the NME.[49]
Controversy arose in 1999 when a Royal Mail stamp was issued in honour of Mercury as part of the Millennium Stamp series. [50]One journalist expressed the opinion that Mercury had lived a "degenerate lifestyle," making him an unsuitable subject for a stamp.[51] The stamp caused further controversy because Queen drummer Roger Taylor could be seen in the background. At that time, members of the British Royal family were the only living people who usually appeared on stamps in the UK, although this policy has since changed.
A further controversy ensued in August 2006, when an organization calling itself the Islamic Mobilization and Propagation petitioned the Zanzibar government's culture ministry, demanding that a large-scale celebration of what would have been Mercury's sixtieth birthday be cancelled. The organization issued several complaints about the planned celebrations, including that Mercury was not a true Zanzibari and that he had lived a homosexual lifestyle not in accordance with the laws of Islam, the dominant religion of the island. The organization claimed that "associating Mercury with Zanzibar degrades our island as a place of Islam."[52]. The planned celebration was cancelled.