Most of us have heard the song Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen at least once in our lives. It is arguably one of the most difficult songs to perform in its complete form, and the movie Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018 refreshed our senses once again on how wonderfully this song was composed by Freddie Mercury. If anything, the movie reignited our appreciation for this song, and we began looking for excellent Bohemian Rhapsody cover versions on YouTube recently.
In case you’ve forgotten this song, here’s the official video release by Freddie Mercury and Queen:
We spent about 6 hours in total watching nearly all versions on YouTube, and shortlisted the following five for their accuracy, adherence to the original version, completeness, delivery, and overall performance. Each of these videos garnered at least a million views on YouTube.
So in no particular order (although Number 1 is our favourite of the lot), here are the five selected cover versions of Bohemian Rhapsody which we think you will enjoy watching (and listening).
1Marc Martel
It’s not surprising that Marc Martel is our favourite. He is after all the voice behind most of the songs sung by Freddie Mercury in the biopic film Bohemian Rhapsody, and is the singer selected for the Queen Extravaganza performances. As seen in this video, he attempts the whole Bohemian Rhapsody song single-handedly. Although it’s impossible for him to do a multi-voice harmony, he exhibits a wide vocal range and sings with a voice and style very close to Freddie’s.
2Richie Castellano
Here is another highly talented vocalist who attempts the Bohemian Rhapsody single-handedly, but unlike Martel above, he records himself singing all the other parts and combines them into one track. And as if that wasn’t enough of a show of talents, he plays all the instruments required of this song. We have to admit this requires extraordinary talent and certainly involves a lot of work to put together, so this comes as a close second to Marc Martel’s first.
3Per Fredrik Åsly – Pellek
Pellek is a Norwegian actor, composer and an amazing singer and we love how he had put his voices together in this heartfelt performance of Bohemian Rhapsody. The power and emotion in his delivery are sensuous, and it’s a video performance of this song that we had to watch more than once just for the sheer joy of revelling in the cocoon of his voice. Pellek also has songs which he has uploaded on iTunes and Amazon which you can check out and purchase.
4Goot and Live Like Us
This one was done in a musical kind of way, but don’t let their theatrical directing distract you from their stunning individual vocal qualities. Apart from a great rendition, we are quite sure the video also involved meticulous coordination and hours of practice to put together seamlessly. The final mix included 419 tracks of audio, with over 300 for just vocals! There are no samples in this recording, and the music you hear was 100% re-created for this video. Viewers are in for an auditory and visual treat in a musical kind of way.
5Pentatonix
We kept this interesting and remarkable version for last as we think you will be amazed by their choice of instruments – their voice! This is an a cappella performance of the song Bohemian Rhapsody, and if we hadn’t seen this, we wouldn’t have believed that a musically complicated song such as this could be done so tastefully and beautifully. Nevermind the ghostly moving sofa, flashlight rocking and scene switching – the voice and imitation of musical instruments are spellbinding on their own!
Bohemian Rhapsody Cover Versions
We picked Marc Martel as our favourite because his Bohemian Rhapsody cover version performance wowed us to a point beyond belief when we first stumbled across his video. Nevertheless, the other performers here are obviously all very talented with amazing vocals and have uploaded interesting videos of their performances.
Do let us know which of the five above is your favourite, and if you think other Bohemian Rhapsody cover versions are worthy of mention, do share with us the YouTube video links in the comments below.
If you like these cover versions, you may also like our Top 5 Bohemian Rhapsody Parodies.
“You can do anything with my music. Remix it, cover it, re-release it. Just…never make me boring.”
– Freddie Mercury
