Queen video for “Bohemian Rhapsody” marks oldest to hit 1 billion views

Queen are celebrating a huge milestone with “Bohemian Rhapsody” as the music video for the song is the oldest music video ever to reach 1 billion views on YouTube. 

The video is now also the first from the ‘70s to reach the milestone and first video before the ‘90s to do so. 

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In celebration of the huge accomplishment, the band is created a campaign “You Are The Champions.” It will utilize three new music videos to three of the band’s most popular songs that feature fan-made videos. You can find out more information here

“We are honoured that Bohemian Rhapsody has just hit one billion views on YouTube. We want to thank you all and celebrate with our amazing fans all around the world by creating three new music videos to our songs, all featuring you!” Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor said about the new campaign. 

Also to honor the huge milestone, the band dropped a newly remastered HD version of the “Bohemian Rhapsody” video, now on YouTube. You can see it below. 

More Queen news

Queen fans, get ready to cry — Universal Music Group just unveiled a previously unreleased and unheard Freddie Mercury performance of “Time Waits For No One.”

The stripped-down video is packed of emotion and was recorded back in 1986.

The video shows Mecury doing what he does best — captivating audiences with an incredible performance that showcases his raw talent.

The song was originally done for the concept album of the musical Time with songwriter and producer Dave Clark.

You can listen to the performance of “Time Waits For No One” below.

Along with the recording, a behind-the-scenes interview with Mercury and Clark is now available.

You can watch that down below.

Speaking of Mercury, Queen guitarist Brian May had some kind words to say about vocalist Adam Lambert recently and even compared him to the late vocalist.

Lambert has toured with Queen since 2012 as the second vocalist to step in after Mercury died in 1991. The first was Free’s, Paul Rodgers.

May recently spoke to GuitarWorld about Lambert’s capabilities and was more than complimentary.

“Adam can do all the stuff that Freddie did and more. It doesn’t matter what you throw at Adam — he can do it,” May said.

“He’s a born exhibitionist. He’s not Freddie, and he’s not pretending to be him, but he has a parallel set of equipment,” he continued. “We treat Adam exactly the same as we treated Freddie in almost every way.”

He also added that he is a “born rock star and frontman.”

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Lambert recently broke our hearts by shutting down the idea of a Bohemian Rhapsody sequel.

“What would it be? A sequel? How would that work? It doesn’t make sense to me but I haven’t heard anything about it,” he said. “But I somehow doubt that. Somehow … I don’t know what they would make the movie about.”

Lambert’s upsetting comments come after a sequel has been rumored. Apparently, a source close to the “Queen family” says that a follow-up is being heavily considered. The source in question is Rudi Dolezal, a Queen video director who has approximately 30 Queen-related IMDb credits.

He says the potential sequel would start where Bohemian Rhapsody left off. Dolezal cites Queen manager Jim Beach’s intentions to pick up the story post-Live Aid performance.

“I’m sure he plans a sequel that starts with Live Aid,” Dolezal says of Beach, adding that the sequel is currently “being heavily discussed in the Queen family.”

So it sounds like a sequel might not be happening, but we’re not going to give up hope yet.

The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody won big at the box office as well as this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. Rami Malek, who portrays Freddie Mercury in the film, is also up for an acting award at next week’s  MTV Movie & TV Awards .

According to Box Office Mojo, Bohemian Rhapsody has grossed over $875 million at the box office, making it the most successful music biopic of all time. While many believe Queen are making a ton of money from the success of the film, guitarist Brian May reveals the band “haven’t earned a penny” from the movie.

In a recent interview with BBC, May discusses the film and how it was not something that happened overnight.

“It was a long labor of love—about 12 years in development, I guess. We thought it would do well in the end and we felt good about it, but we didn’t realize it would do that well. It’s incredible around the world—it’s like a billion-dollar movie.”

When it comes to the reports that Queen are making a ton of money from the film, May is quick to shut down those assumptions.

“I had to laugh the other day, because there’s a thing in the paper saying that we were getting rich off this movie. If they only knew. We had an accountant in the other day, and we still haven’t earned a penny from it. How successful does a movie have to be before you make money? There’s so many people that people don’t realize will take pieces off the top.”

Despite not making any money from the film so far, May admits the band are happy to finally have the movie out there.

“I think Freddie comes out of it with his dignity, but without having been whitewashed in any way. It’s very real… I think people are astounded how close to Freddie Rami [Malek] got. It’s phenomenal the way he got inside Freddie’s body somehow—inside his skin.”

You can watch the full interview below.

What do you think of the huge Queen accomplishment? Sound off in the comments down below!

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