QUEEN's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' Is Most-Streamed Song From 20th Century

December 10, 2018

"Bohemian Rhapsody", the iconic single by British rock legends QUEEN, has become most-streamed song from the 20th Century, as well as the most-streamed classic rock song of all time.

On Monday (December 10),Universal Music Group (UMG) announced that the song has garnered more than 1.6 billion global streams — a figure that takes into account all registered streams on global on-demand streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, as well as streams from official song or video streams on YouTube.

In taking the top spot, the song pulled ahead of NIRVANA's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", GUNS N' ROSES' "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "November Rain", and A-HA's "Take On Me".

"Bohemian Rhapsody"'s popularity has been boosted by the recent success of the QUEEN movie "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became the highest-grossing music biopic in history five weeks after its release. The film has already grossed more than $596.1 million at the global box office.

QUEEN guitarist Brian May said in a statement: "So the River of Rock Music has metamorphosed into streams! Very happy that our music is still flowing to the max!"

Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, said: "'Bohemian Rhapsody' is one the greatest songs by one of the greatest bands in history. We are so proud to represent QUEEN and are thrilled to see the song still inspiring new fans around the world more than four decades after its release. My congratulations to QUEEN and [longtime manager] Jim Beach on an incredible achievement that is a testament to the enduring brilliance of QUEEN."

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was first released as a single on October 31, 1975. Despite its unconventional structure and exorbitant length for a single, it became QUEEN's first Top 10 hit in the U.S. In the U.K., it went to No. 1 for nine consecutive weeks, a record at the time. The song revisited the charts 16 years later, when it appeared in the 1992 comedy "Wayne's World", starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey.

Find more on Queen
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).