Sunday, January 30, 2011

American Idol again sheds light on popularity of BoRhap


Media Moment: American Idol, TED, Pink: Live in Australia
Queen Related: BoRhap

I was waiting to see long it took the new season of American Idol to showcase an audition that used BoRhap. Sure enough, within the first two days of the audition, teenager Brett Loewenstern from Florida wowed the three judges with his best Freddie imitation.

While I usually don’t heap praise upon American Idol wannabes who use Queen to audition with, Brett actually got Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez singing along. Seeing these two recording artists mouth the words to BoRhap made me realize the extent to which the song has garnered respect from both fans and peers of Queen.

Has the latest season of American Idol kickstarted the Bohemian Rhapsody craze once again? For whatever reason, I’ve noticed a spate of BoRhap renditions making the rounds on the Internet. Two of them, in my opinion, are worth noting here.

A fellow QMSer sent a link to a TED.com (technology, entertainment, design) that featured a video of Jake Shimabukuro performing BoRhap on a ukulele. While he stumbled in a few places trying to keep up with the frenetic pace of the opera section, he nonetheless got a standing ovation from the Long Beach, CA crowd. A YouTube search showed me that he’s been doing that song for quite a while but this latest video seems to have earned him a wider viewership.

Finally, I came across Pink’s performance of BoRhap as part of her Live in Australia concert DVD and I must say she did an admirable job. I thought that her choice of yellow bomber jacket was apropo given the song. Her backup singers powered through the opera section very well and it was only the harder-edged parts of the song that Pink missed the mark slightly.

Her tribute to Queen here leads me to believe that she was more than happy with her involvement with the Moulin Rouge soundtrack; she co-sang the Lady Marmalade single but then The Show Must Go On also appeared on the film’s double-CD release.

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

$160,000 Money Drop


Media Moment:
Million Dollar Money Drop
Queen Related: BoRhap used in game show answer.

Life-long friends, Callie and Lauren, used to live two doors away from each other when they were two-years-old. And now, they’ve appeared together on the new Million Dollar Money Drop.


They seemed to be doing quite well with the questions leading up to the one where Bohemian Rhapsody was one of three possible song answers. The two friends had to guess which of the songs was actually the longest (in minutes) based on the original album version.


I’m happy that they were supportive of Queen at that moment, but I don’t think Callie and Lauren listened to A Night at the Opera enough when they were younger. Otherwise, they would have seen 5:55 on the LP and/or on the CD player display.


To make matters worse, they didn’t realize that another song answer, American Pie by Don McLean, ran past eight minutes . . . way longer than BoRhap. The length of the third song answer, Ramblin’ Man by the Allman Brothers, was a mystery to me but I was pretty sure that American Pie was going to be the longest song of the three choices.


Callie and Lauren betted the lion’s share of their money on BoRhap and the remainder on Ramblin’ Man, but lost everything once their money dropped from both of those choices and left American Pie intact. Bummer.


What I found interesting was when the two women were holding each other and waiting in anticipation of the answer, they were chanting “Queen,” “Queen,” “Queen.” For the first time in my life, I heard people rooting for Queen but it wasn’t for the music, it was because of the dollar value assigned to that song at that moment.


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