While the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody’s presence throughout this year’s awards season continues to ring problematic, fans might be pleased to hear that the legendary band is set to play the Academy Awards this Sunday.
Adam Lambert will step in as the front man alongside Queen’s original drummer and guitarist, Roger Taylor and Brian May. There’s no word yet on what they will play, though a rousing rendition of the film’s title track might be a safe, if not a little too on the nose, favorite.
Lambert has a fairly lengthy history with Queen that stems from 2009, when they first came together to perform on the American Idol season finale. On top of a quiet cameo in the biopic, he will also be joining them for yet another North American tour this summer. It’s a formula that appears to work for them, as most of their shows manage to sell out.
Bohemian Rhapsody has been shrouded in controversy since its production days. A sizable portion of the pushback stems from its connection with former director Bryan Singer, who was fired mid-production for routinely skipping work and has accrued many accusations of sexual assault over the years. The cast has been careful to distance their success from Singer, which he kind of torpedoed with a now deleted Instagram post thanking the Hollywood Foreign Press for the film’s win for Best Drama Motion Picture. We’re not sure that even Lambert can wail into the mic loud enough to drown out the concern surrounding Hollywood’s lingering hesitance to saddle Singer with any real consequences, but we’ll see.
[Via Deadline]
39 Comments
quite the workload of Oscars post for someone who is sick of hearing about the Oscars.Filed to: BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY HYPOCRITE/fixed
Gonna be a no thanks for me.
I’m waiting for the Hammer To Fall on Bryan Singer.
It still boggles the mind that Queen for a long period of time had Paul Rogers as their lead singer. I cannot imagine a worse choice to replace the operatic, charismatic Freddy Mercury, than the dull, workmanlike, pedestrian Rogers. Adam Lambert makes tons more sense.
Yeah, it was…okay at best. And really not a fit.
Freddie Mercury was a big fan of Rodgers which probably played into the decision to work with him. I like him myself but I agree that he really doesn’t work with Queen’s music (I think even the band admitted this once they parted ways)
Freddie Mercury was a big fan of Rodgers which probably played into the decision to work with him. I like him myself but I agree that he really doesn’t work with Queen’s music (I think even the band admitted this once they parted ways)
I think Rodgers gets a bad rap primarily because of Bad Company. I love everyone in that band but they were the most godawful boring supergroup ever. They never even cut loose live. Straight up paycheck gig.
They basically existed in order to record enough songs to populate a greatest hits album. 10 from 6 is all anyone I’ve ever known owned.
I still think they should use Mika. He sounds so much like Mercury he jokes about it in a song.
I’m excited for all the discussions about how Brian May can no longer play the songs he wrote because the guy who originally sang them died.
SIDEBAR: That’s basically why John Deacon retired.
Actually, it was a lot more prosaic than that…When Freddie told them all that the touring was going to stop after the final Wembley gig, John was the only one who didn’t complain – because it meant he wasn’t leaving his family behind in Putney for 9 months at a time! Of the four of them, he’s the only one who ever really settled down – he’s 44 years married this year.After Freddie’s death, when the other two decided they wanted back on the road, his attitude was “I won’t try and stop you, but wild horses couldn’t drag me back.”
Nothing against him playing the songs he wrote…just would prefer if he didn’t tour as ‘Queen’ when they’re missing half the band. Go and tour as ‘May & Taylor of Queen’ if they want to keep on performing. It’s like Angus Young going out and playing as AC/DC with Axl Rose on vocals
Except for all the parts Taylor and May sing….
It’s not really that he can’t, it’s just kind of lame that he does. It’s like Mike Mills and Peter Buck going out on the road with Taylor Hicks and calling it R.E.M.
https://twitter.com/pramitheus/status/1089188260071514112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1089188260071514112&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thepoke.co.uk%2F2019%2F02%2F05%2Frapid-fire-editing-scene-bohemian-rhapsody-melting-peoples-brains%2F
It’s a…weird…slate this year.
Where is Arya when you need her?
In a bucket list moment, I got to see the Adam Lambert+Queen tour live last year, and it lives up to every ounce of the hype, to put it mildly. While I’m still deeply concerned that Bohemian Rhapsody wasn’t quietly blacklisted from awards like Birth of a Nation was a couple of years back, I’ll be damn glad to see a performance of this caliber as part of the ceremony, considering we usually only get one of those a year (I still haven’t recovered from the Sufjan Sufjpergroup last year, which was one of the most absurdly stacked one-offs I’ve ever seen).
After reading your comment I went to youtube for some Lambert +Queen samples. I didn’t expect Lambert to move like Mercury, but he didn’t move much at all. Also, I thought Lambert had a more powerful voice. A bit disappointed 🙁
Dunno if it doesn’t translate well to YT – he was stellar live. Did like a solid dozen costume changes, and in a very Mercury-esque move, was constantly prowling every corner of the stage.
I’m convinced. Bad youtubing.
At any rate, hope you (and the universe) enjoy ‘em on stage at the Oscars! They don’t always have the best sound mixing, but I’d sure hope they’ll go all in on BH while they have the chance.
I feel like seeing Freddie Mercury + Queen would be bucket list worthy, whereas seeing Adam Lambert + Queen would be “eh, I guess” worthy.
Unfortunately, Freddie Mercury passed several years before I was born, so that wasn’t really an option. I was raised on Queen, with Brian May as both my favorite musician (and role model, in a lot of ways – he’s a big part of why I ended up in physics while still pursuing art stuff on the side), and Adam Lambert as my all-time favorite American Idol winner (which I watched religiously as a tween), so this tour was VERY specifically in bucket list territory for me.
Finally saw BR today. Malek was amazing and should win. The teeth were somewhat distracting though.
So is Queen nominated for something? Or are they not concerned about Oscars runtime at all anymore? Makes no sense that they’d propose losing those awards but keep a superfluous Queen performance.
Weirdly enough, they are. They’re producers, and it’s nominated for best picture.
I guess I should have clarified, nominated for something musical? Surely not best song, which really should be the only musical performances if they insist on having them. Just seems unnecessary
I’m a fan of things Williams sisters, but the decision to have a tennis player on to talk about one of the nominations seems even more weirdly extraneous to me.
ugh, does that mean they’re going to have those awful “heartfelt” tributes to each of the best picture nominees? And they can’t figure out how to get it under 3 hours
Sure looks like it.https://ew.com/oscars/2019/02/17/oscar-telecast-best-picture-nominees/
Unless someone protests, which seems to be a major part of their decision-making process.
Finally saw Bohemian Rhapsody tonight. I was afraid that Malik (for me, at least) wouldn’t work as Mercury. He didn’t, but I’m glad that most everyone else was inspired by his performance. I think the movie was good anyway.
It was a good, entertaining movie that has no business being nominated for Best Picture.
You had me at Queen and lost me at Lambert. Can’t we find someone besides him to sing with Queen?
“the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody’s presence throughout this year’s awards season continues to ring problematic”
It doesn’t. It really, really doesn’t. Focus on something that matters.
Why is the existence of this movie “problematic” (and god I’m sick of that word). The entire roster of people involved shouldn’t be smeared just because the original/fired director is a scumbag.
I still can’t figure this out, either. Maybe it’s staring me in the face and I’m missing it, but I thought the movie was great (maybe not ‘Best Picture’ great but I have no problem with it on the short list) and see no reason why a fired ex-director should be an issue at all.
Finally saw Bohemian Rhapsody this week and really enjoyed it. It’s basically Musical Biopic 101, but when the music and Rami Malek are that good in it, who cares?