Original members of the celebrated band Queen will perform live at this year’s Oscars on Sunday, with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor set to take centre stage at the glitzy American ceremony as their musical biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody” battles for the coveted best picture crown. They will be joined in their performance on the night by Adam Lambert on vocals, no doubt hoping that there will be plenty of Oscar celebrations on the cards, with the hugely successful Film having been nominated in five Academy Award categories.
Their appearance marks yet another chapter in the well-deserved runaway success of the film that celebrates the meteoric rise of the band and the complicated life of Queen’s former flamboyant frontman Freddie Mercury, who died in 1991 at the age of 45.
Rami Malek takes on the challenging part of playing Mercury in the movie and his acting talents have been recognised with a nod in the best actor category, backing up his Leading Actor success at the recent BAFTA Film Awards. He will face stiff competition from the likes of Bradley Cooper, Viggo Mortensen, Willem Dafoe and especially Christian Bale for that honour.
Five nominations at the Oscars
Besides best picture and best actor nomination recognition, “Bohemian Rhapsody” has also been nominated at the 91st annual Academy Awards in the Best Film Editing (John Ottman), Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing categories. Two films stand out so far as having the most chances at this year’s awards though, and big hitters “Roma” and “The Favourite” each have an incredible 10 nominations.
Box office success for Bohemian Rhapsody
If success at the box office represents a reliable indicator of the popularity of a project, then global takings in excess of $850 million have firmly vindicated the strong belief that band members had in the depiction of Queen’s musical journey on screen. In doing so, as far as musical biopics are concerned “Bohemian Rhapsody” has become the most successful ever in its genre.
Tom Chaplin homage to Queen
The heightened interest in all things to do with Queen seems to have inspired other musicians to pay their respects to the rock band’s back catalogue of hits. Keane lead singer Tom Chaplin is set to tour the UK this year, as he performs Queen songs during a six-date mini-tour in April. Chaplin’s homage to their works will include stopovers in Cardiff, Manchester and the London Palladium, and will include “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the set.
