LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JULY 13: Freddie Mercury of Queen performs on stage at Live Aid on July ... [+]
Queen is revving up its money machine with a host of new releases, apps and shows – more than a year after the release of the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic.
The boost from the Oscar-winning movie, starring Rami Malek as the singer Freddie Mercury, has lasted much longer than some predicted. The band, one of the most commercially successful in rock, says it has now sold as many as 300 million records worldwide. Its management is finding increasingly inventive ways to keep the rock name alive.
For example, there is a new partnership between Queen, Google, Universal Music Group, Hollywood Records and YouTube Music, who are challenging aspiring singers to see if they can sound like Freddie Mercury. FreddieMeter is an AI-powered singing challenge. Fans pick their favorite song from four options, “Bohemian Rhapsody” of course as well as “Don’t Stop Me Now,” “Somebody to Love” or “We Are the Champions,” then sing their hearts out. The program, built by Google Research, analyses how closely they mimic the singer’s pitch, timbre, and melody, and then confidentially assigns a FreddieScore of 0 to 100. Users can choose to share results on social media using #FreddieChallenge if they wish and get others to join in.
The app’s release, on desktop, Android and iPhone, marks the 44th anniversary of the British band’s first-ever live performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody” at the Empire Theatre, Liverpool, in November 1975. The song’s video recently hit 1 billion views on YouTube and is the first pre-1990s video to reach one billion views on the platform. This news coincided with the release of a newly remastered HD version of the video.
For decades, fans and celebrities have belted out the lyrics of “Bohemian Rhapsody” – such as in in the 1992 movie Wayne’s World – and “We Are The Champions,” such as in James Cordon’s Carpool Karaoke TV show with Gwen Stefani, George Clooney and Julia Roberts.
Proceeds from the FreddieMeter go to The Mercury Phoenix Trust, a charity founded by Brian May, Roger Taylor and their manager Jim Beach in Mercury’s memory to support the fight against HIV and AIDS.
YouTube also recently launched “You Are The Champions,” which gives fans a chance to have a starring role in new, user-generated videos.
The Bohemian Rhapsody Soundtrack (Virgin EMI/Universal), released at the time of the biopic a year ago, is still in the British albums Top 20, according to the Official Charts Company list just released.
Meanwhile the five-disc, three-hour Mercury box set Never Boring (Virgin/EMI), including his 1980s solo albums Mr Bad Guy and Barcelona with Montserrat Caballé as well as a compilation of other songs and videos, came out in October and debuted at No. 18 on the Official Chart, a good start for a big box set. It includes “I Was Born to Love You,” “Living on My Own,” “Love Kills” and “The Great Pretender.”
The momentum has continued with this year’s Queen and Adam Lambert tour in America. Next year the Rhapsody Tour visits Britain and mainland Europe, Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. The jukebox musical We Will Rock You, after a decade-long West End run, has just announced more dates in North America and Italy. It has played on six continents.
Also available is the video Queen + Bejart: Ballet for Life, which combines Queen's music with choreography by Maurice Bejart.
Fans have also enjoyed reissues of the albums such as A Night At The Opera or A Day At The Races. Whether we get a Bohemian Rhapsody sequel or remixes of the tracks – possibilities that have been spoken of – it is a fair guess that Queen will be rocking us, and the charts, for some time to come.
