Since the 91st Academy Awards were without a host, Queen and Adam Lambert were enlisted to open the ceremony with “We Will Rock You,” which was prominently featured in the Oscar-nominated Bohemian Rhapsody.
After “We Will Rock You,” Queen and Lambert segued into “We Are The Champions.” At the end, video of Freddie Mercury was played on the screen behind them.
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed Queen and Lambert would be performing at the show on Monday. The Academy shared a teaser showing Lambert singing “We Will Rock You” with the group.
“If you’re ever heard Queen’s music, I think this will be something that will invite you in, in a really great way,” Oscars producer Glenn Weiss told USA Today. “The music is so well-known that this to us became a really great way to open the show and not be traditional like a normal awards show and depend on things like a monologue.”
Typically, the Oscars open with a monologue from a host that could run up to 20 minutes before the first award is finally presented. Without a host, there is no monologue, so things should get started much sooner after Queen performs.
Queen’s late lead singer Freddie Mercury is the subject of Bohemian Rhapsody, one of eight films nominated for Best Picture this year. The movie was nominated for four other awards, including Best Actor for Rami Malek’s performance as Mercury; Best Sound Editing; Best Sound Mixing; and Best Film Editing.
Lambert has been performing with Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor regularly since 2012 and first performed with them on American Idol in 2009.
May and Taylor are the only remaining original members of the group. Mercury died from complications of AIDS in 1991 and bassist John Deacon retired in 1997.
Bohemian Rhapsody was one of the biggest box office hits of 2018, grossing $860.8 million worldwide since its release in November, making it the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time.
However, the film has been dogged by controversy, thanks to the numerous historical inaccuracies throughout the film and its director Bryan Singer. Singer has been accused of sexual misconduct over two decades, most recently in an extensive report in The Atlantic. The director has denied the allegations.
“My heart goes out to anyone who has to live through anything like what I’ve heard and what is out there,” Malek, who clashed with the director on set before he was fired late in production, said at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, reports The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s awful, it’s remarkable that this happens, I can appreciate so much what they’ve been through and how difficult this must be for them. In the light of the #MeToo era that this somehow seems to exist after that, it’s a horrible thing.”
The 91st Oscars will also feature Jennifer Hudson performing “I’ll Fight” from RBG; Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performing “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs; Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper dueting on “Shallow” from A Star Is Born; and Bette Midler singing “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns.
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