Bohemian Rhapsody · Queen
Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody was first titled Mongolian Rhapsody
Freddie Mercury's early handwritten draft of Bohemian Rhapsody has the title crossed out and changed from "Mongolian" to "Bohemian".
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Transcript
Freddie Mercury first wrote the title of Bohemian Rhapsody as Mongolian Rhapsody.
He scribbled it in 1974, on a sheet of airline notepaper.
Then he crossed out Mongolian, and wrote Bohemian instead.
In 2023, that handwritten draft sold at auction for over a million pounds.
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An early handwritten draft of the song, unearthed at an auction of items that belonged to Mercury, shows he originally considered the title "Mongolian Rhapsody". He wrote the title and the lyrics in 1974 on a page of stationery from the defunct airline British Midland Airways, then crossed out "Mongolian" and replaced it with "Bohemian".
The draft also shows alternate lines. In the early version, Mercury planned to sing "Mama, there's a war began" rather than "Mama, just killed a man".
The handwritten lyrics were sold at Sotheby's in London in September 2023, in the sale of Mercury's belongings, for more than a million pounds. Sources quote the price as £1.3 million or £1.38 million, depending on whether fees are included.
