Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
These are the nine words that pretty much everyone in the world knows and loves. The nine words that every person knows will take them on a musical journey like no other.
Now though, these nine words, along with the rest of Bohemian Rhapsody, have gone down in history. This week, the Queen classic was named the most-streamed song of the 20th century.
New records confirmed that the iconic banger had received a mind-blowing 1.6 billion streams across multiple services including Youtube and Spotify, allowing it to overtake Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.
It's perhaps no big surprise that the progressive 1975 classic has become the most streamed song of the 20th century, with it staying at the top of the UK Singles Chart for no less than nine weeks at the time of release, and sitting pretty at number one again for another five weeks after the legendary Freddie Mercury's death.
The song also re-entered the charts after Queen biopic, also entitled Bohemian Rhapsody, was released in November this year.
In a statement accompanying the news, Queen guitarist Brian May said: "So the river of rock music has metamorphosed into streams! Very happy that our music is still flowing to the max!"
Lucian Grainge, CEO of Queen’s label Universal Music Group, added that it was an "incredible achievement that is a testament to the enduring brilliance of Queen."
Nirvana’s 1991 grunge anthem Smells Like Teen Spirit came in at number two with more than 1.5 billion streams, followed by two songs by Guns N’ Roses: Sweet Child O’ Mine and November Rain. Rounding up the top five was a-ha’s synth-pop hit Take on Me.
In other Queen news, Brian May recently spoke out about how he felt watching the recently released 2018 biographical film, Bohemian Rhapsody, claiming it hit him with a mixture of emotions.
"Joy and horror and sadness and all those big emotions. I’ve seen it hundreds of times now, in fragments and eventually coming together, and it still gets me, I must say," the 71-year-old said, speaking to Classic Rock.
He continued: "It’s very emotional. It’s all about Freddie. Yes, we are in there, but the story is about Freddie and that was always the aim. Obviously, Freddie is so precious to us. One of the great breakthroughs early on was [screenwriter] Peter Morgan saying: ‘This is a film about family.’
"It’s about all the stuff that happens in a family – some good, some bad, the going away, the searching for independence and then the nurture of the family. It’s a film about that stuff, on one level, and then it’s about Freddie’s emerging talent, his amazing resilience and sense of humour."
May also revealed what he believed Mercury would have made of the new movie, which follows the late singer's life, leading to Queen's Live Aid performance at Wembley Stadium in 1985.
"I think he would have felt it was a fair cop, really. It shows all his greatness and all his fallibility and insecurity – the whole bit," the English musician claimed.
Freddie Mercury may be gone, but his spirit was certainly kept alive by Rami Malek in the new movie - check out the incredible video that shows how astonishingly precise his performance is here.
