Queen launch You Are The Champions campaign after Bohemian Rhapsody hits 1 billion views
Queen are celebrating ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ surpassing one billion views on YouTube by launching a You Are The Champions video campaign.
Uploaded to YouTube almost exactly a decade ago, Queen’s seminal 1975 song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ hit one billion views over the weekend, and made history as the first pre-1990’s video to reach the billion milestone on YouTube.
To mark the occasion, the band have now uploaded a remastered HD version of the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video to YouTube so fans can watch the video as it was originally intended.
Watch it here:
On top of this, Queen have partnered with YouTube Music, Universal Music Group and Hollywood Records to launch the You Are The Champions campaign.
The campaign gives Queen fans the chance to play a starring role in user generated videos for three classic songs – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ and ‘A Kind of Magic’.
Musicians, singers, and instrumentalists can take on ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, dancers will be able to give their own interpretations for ‘Don't Stop Me Now’ (with a special instructional video created by Polly Bennett, Rami Malik’s movement coach from Bohemian Rhapsody), and visual artists will get the chance to design any word or phrase from the lyrics of ‘A Kind of Magic’.
More details about submissions will be made available on youarethechampions.com, and the trio of videos will debut on YouTube later this year.
Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor said: “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! Whether you are a musician, singer, dancer, visual artist or you just want to have some fun.”
“Bohemian Rhapsody is a sonic and cinematic masterpiece that’s one of the most enduring songs of all time,” said Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music for YouTube.
“The newly remastered video on YouTube will ensure the song continues to be rediscovered, embraced and beloved by old and new generations of music fans around the world; it's incredible to help change the way fans experience music and provide a place for artist and fan connections worldwide."
Celine Joshua, General Manager, Commercial, Content and Artist Strategy at Universal Music Group, said: “We are thrilled that Queen’s iconic Bohemian Rhapsody video has reached a historic one billion views on YouTube. Now, together with Queen, YouTube and Hollywood Records, we are excited to launch ‘You Are The Champions’, an innovative new user generated video campaign with Queen’s incredible fans around the world at its core. This will be the first of a series of custom initiatives we have planned in the coming months on the official Queen channel.”