Queen’s song “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a huge hit in 1975. It stayed at the top of the UK charts for nine weeks, but in the U.S., it only made it to the top 10. However, it became the third best-selling single of all time in the UK. Even though how people listen to music has changed over the years, the popularity of this song hasn’t really gone down. In 2018, “Bohemian Rhapsody” was officially recognized as the most streamed song from the 20th century.
The song by Queen has been streamed more than 1.5 billion times by listeners. This is a huge number and it’s even more than other famous songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana, “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by Guns N’ Roses, and “Don’t Stop Believin'” by Journey.
However, when we look at the total number of times songs are streamed, newer songs still come out on top. For example, the original version of Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” and its remix together got a massive 4.6 billion plays in just six months after its release in 2017.
The recognition for “Bohemian Rhapsody” becomes even more meaningful when you know its story and the doubts people had about its success. Some people in the music industry, including the band’s manager and friend Elton John, didn’t think it would be a hit because of its long duration and unusual, operatic style. However, when the song was played on the radio, listeners loved it and started calling in to request it again, proving the doubters wrong.
In recent years, the song got even more popular thanks to a movie about Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen. The movie, called Bohemian Rhapsody and starring Rami Malek, came out on November 2, 2018. It became the highest grossing musical biopic ever, beating the movie Straight Outta Compton from 2015.
But this wasn’t the first time the song got a boost from a movie. In 1992, the song became popular again when it was featured in the movie Wayne’s World, which was based on a popular sketch from Saturday Night Live.
“Bohemian Rhapsody” isn’t the only Queen song on the list of most streamed songs from the 20th century; the band actually has four songs in the top 10 (one of them is a collaboration with David Bowie). Here are the top 10 most streamed songs from the 20th century:
