Hi! It’s been two months since I posted and I’m not very good at updating anymore.

Last month, we went back to Manila for vacation, but the sole reason was Interactive Introverts, although this topic is reserved for my next post because I have something else in mind.

And that is Bohemian Rhapsody and Queen in general.

Queen. Queen. Queen. Queen. Queen.

Where do I begin? (Okay, that rhymed, and I swear it wasn’t intended.)

It’s only been since college days that I’ve really started listening to some of their songs. I didn’t like a lot of their songs back then, and I only had one song in my playlist, which was Bohemian Rhapsody.

I know what you’re thinking: I’m just joining the bandwagon and had just started to listen to them because the film is about to be released.

First off, no. I’m not listening to Queen because of the hype going around Bohemian Rhapsody. Do you believe that as time goes by, a person’s taste for certain things can change, like they would grow to like the food they had used to hate? That is my case, except that word “hate”. I don’t dislike their music, it’s just it wasn’t my genre… until now.

2013 was my year of social media: I created an IG account, I grew active on Twitter, and I discovered a lot of stuff on Tumblr, including Doctor Who, Sherlock and a tonne more others. It was also when I had started listening to The Beatles after finding out that we own an Abbey Road vinyl and my mother used to sing us some of their songs as kids.

Because of The Beatles, I began to explore more into the rock category, and had listened to Aerosmith, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Presley, Billy Joel, and a lot more, although I’m that kind of person who listens to a band’s whole playlist if I really like it. It was when I came across Bohemian Rhapsody, which I had on loop for days, because I had heard it before as I child and I was extremely enjoying it. I searched for more of their songs, and found out that they had also produced hits such as “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions” which were very popular at school, especially during competitions. Those were the only songs I liked back then, because as I said, it wasn’t my type at all. I only like those three songs aforementioned because I had listened to them as a child, and I had so many memories involving those.

I was only until around 2016 when I was already consistently listening to Green Day, Panic! At The Disco, Imagine Dragons and The Beatles. Because of overplaying these bad boys on YouTube, something popped up in my recommendations, and it was My Chemical Romance performing “We Will Rock You” with this dude named Brian May. I know who MCR was, but I didn’t know Brian May, but I was curious because it had a lot of views so I clicked on it. When Gerard Way announced the guitarist name and the crowd cheered even louder, I knew that this guy was somehow famous, and his guitar solo was really cool so I Googled him after watching it and then I learned that he was the guitarist in Queen, alongside Freddie Mercury.

You could say that My Chemical Romance was one of the two people who had reintroduced me to Queen because of that live Reading performance of that iconic song. The other one was James Corden his head-to-head “battle” with Adam Lambert about who made the better frontman for Queen. It led me to other gems such as “I Want It All”, “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “Somebody to Love”, “Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy”, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, and a whole lot of others that made into my playlist. Also, it was the time I learned that they were the ones who sang “Too Much Love Will Kill You”, which was popular during my 3rd year in high school except that the word “love” was replaced with “math”, and Freddie Mercury originally performed “The Great Pretender”, which is one of my mother’s go-to karaoke songs. One of my personal favorites is “I want To Break Free”; it had somehow helped me know who I really was after listening to the song intently and watching the music video. Plus, Freddie Mercury as a ‘Liverpudlian slag’ is really hot and Roger Taylor in schoolgirl drag is the most attractive thing I have ever seen in my life (I’m not going to lie, he’s even prettier than most girls I personally know).

I mean

Over the course of 2 years, I’m still trying to get hang of their other songs, but I’m already getting there. There are still some that I still yet have to learn to love but hey, even if you’re a huge fan of something doesn’t mean you have to love every song they release, right? I’m a Firebreather, Idiot, Sinner, and Beatlemaniac but there are a few songs that I don’t like that much.

Last year, it was announced that there would be a movie that revolves around the band, specifically Freddie Mercury. As someone who has researched about Queen and their members, I became pumped (still am) because it will be showing what had happened behind the stage, when they begun, during rehearsals and the rest of their history, and it will be a whole different perspective, and I’m guessing a very accurate one since Brian May and Roger Taylor are creative consultants of the film, which is a really good move. Rami Malek is looking good as Freddie Mercury, and Gwilym Lee and Joseph Mazzello look eerily like Brian May and John Deacon especially with their wigs on, it’s really astounding and creepy. (Speaking of John Deacon, although I know what he’s going through, I still wish he could come to the premiere of the film because it will be awesome to see the three of them together again, especially after a long time.)

I am very excited about the film, and I couldn’t wait to watch it next week (it shows at a nearby cinema on October 31).

This is all I could express for now, and I might have left out some thoughts on Queen, but I’m just overly hyped about Bohemian Rhapsody and it’s so close I can almost taste it. I don’t care if it’s crap for other people, I’m still going to watch it.

See you guys next time!

-claude