It’s undeniable. Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is THE most epic track of all time, and like the band itself, it has broken many barriers in music. The nearly 6-minute rock odyssey of a song has touched the lives of fans and artists alike across a number of genres and generations since its release in 1975. Everyone from Zac Brown Band, to Panic! at the Disco has covered the track regularly in concert.
To celebrate the release of Twentieth Century Fox and Regency Enterprises film Bohemian Rhapsody (which hits theaters on November 2nd), iHeartMedia will play Queen’s iconic song across all 650-plus radio stations and websites nationwide on November 1st at 9 a.m. local time, as part of the biggest roadblock in history.
In a statement, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia Tom Poleman said of the unprecedented roadblock, “There’s an amazing moment in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ where the executive at EMI Records, Ray Foster, says that radio will never play ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ because it’s too long. He obviously was wrong. We’re thrilled to help celebrate Queen and this incredible film with a first-ever massive roadblock that only a company with iHeartMedia’s unparalleled reach could achieve.”
Also in support of the film, and in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox, iHeartRadio released a video featuring nearly 20 different artists across genres talking about the impact of Queen, Freddie Mercury, and their legendary music. Foo Fighters‘ Taylor Hawkins, Shawn Mendes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Luke Bryan, Mike Shinoda, Backstreet Boys, and many more opened up about how they’ve personally been inspired by Queen.
Bohemian Rhapsody is centered around Queen beginning from their early days — especially how Freddie Mercury broke barriers and stereotypes to become the beloved performer the world remembers him as — leading up to the band’s iconic performance at Live Aid in 1985. The movie stars Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joseph Mazzello and more, and is directed by Bryan Singer.
During a recent interview, Gwilym Lee said of how the movie will relate to a younger generation of fans, “It’s so universal this music, you hear it everywhere, on the radio, TV, every time you go to a sporting event, you hear either ‘We Will Rock You,’ ‘Another One Bites The Dust,’ or ‘We Are The Champions,’ but I don’t think people know that it was Queen that wrote these songs. So, to see the film, to go back to the origins of those songs, and not to take them for granted. Because they’re so universal, I think we do sometimes take them for granted, but to really imagine what it must’ve been like to write a song like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for the first time, in such a groundbreaking way, is, I think, quite amazing.”
