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By Citizen Reporter

Journalist


WATCH: Heathrow baggage handlers pay tribute to Freddie Mercury

Airport staff 'break free' in to celebrate late Queen singer's birthday.


Freddie Mercury is known to many as the flamboyant, fabulous frontman of Queen and a multi-talented musician who boasted one of the finest voices of his generation.

What you may not know about him is that he worked for a short time at Heathrow Airport in the UK as a baggage handler.

Today is his birthday. Had he not passed away tragically in 1991 from bronchial pneumonia resulting from Aids, Mercury (real name Farrokh Bulsara) would have been 72 years old.

So in honour of the late Queen singer’s laurels, baggage handlers at Heathrow Terminal 5 have today decided to ‘break free’ and pay tribute by striking poses, dressing up in some of Mercury’s signature outfits, and performing some of his moves for passengers.

You can catch some of what’s going on in the Terminal in the video below on British Airways’s Twitter account.

“Freddie Mercury was a truly British icon and I am delighted to ‘break free’ and celebrate his iconic life with my colleagues,” Virinder Bansal told ITV news, as the baggage service manager at Heathrow who also stars in the video

“We hope passengers at Terminal 5 enjoy our surprising and unique welcome to the UK, before we return to work. After all, The Show Must Go On.”

Chances are, if you’re a Queen fan, most radio stations you listen to today will be blasting out the band’s best-loved tracks. Oh, and don’t forget, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ the Freddie Mercury biopic starring Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek, lands in cinemas next month. You can watch the trailer below:

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