te reo Māori rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody
February 22, 2019 4:01 AM   Subscribe

Incredible live version of Bohemian Rhapsody in te reo Māori by choir and the music video, (by the same group) which is good fun.

(The choir link has annoying auto-advance videos.)
posted by freethefeet (8 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
So cool! Thank you!!!
posted by james33 at 4:25 AM on February 22, 2019


Wow. That was a great way to start the day.
posted by COD at 5:11 AM on February 22, 2019


I love how much expression and energy every performer puts out, from the (wiggling? Shaking? Vibrating?) hands at their sides to their wide open eyes to their evident joy to be singing /this/ note at /this/ moment, and it's every note at every moment.

I want to send this video to every choir director I've ever had and tell them "this! Why didn't you teach us this?!"
posted by ZakDaddy at 5:57 AM on February 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


Truly the Sicko Mode of a generation.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 6:23 AM on February 22, 2019


I love how much expression and energy every performer puts out, from the (wiggling? Shaking? Vibrating?) hands at their sides to their wide open eyes to their evident joy to be singing /this/ note at /this/ moment, and it's every note at every moment.

The shaking hands and wide eyes are both part of the haka. It keeps your energy up and intimidates your foes.

I'm sure that, as a foreigner, I'm looking at history through rose-colored lenses and ignoring centuries of colonialist horrors, but I find it beautiful just how much of Maori culture is a living, respected, essential part of modern New Zealand culture, even among the descendants of the colonizers. In North America, the culture of the native peoples is suppressed and parodied, but that doesn't seem to be the case in New Zealand.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:40 AM on February 22, 2019 [7 favorites]


One of the things I love about this that I think makes it better than so many other a capella renditions of this song is that they didn't feel the need to mechanically reproduce the song note-for-note and attempt vocal versions of all the instrumental parts. They arranged it to the strengths of their group and their musical tradition. So, for instance, that transition to the faster "So you think you can stop me..." part just works and sounds so right.
posted by straight at 9:20 AM on February 22, 2019 [3 favorites]


(And good job linking both the live performance and the music video which has much better sound quality but lacks some of the stuff ZakDaddy points to that is so great about their singing tradition but lets you see another side of these people. Thanks for the post, freethefeet!)
posted by straight at 9:26 AM on February 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Spectacular.
posted by spitbull at 3:03 PM on February 22, 2019


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