In one must have been one of the most daunting performances of recent times, Ghost frontman Tobias Forge has sung Queen‘s classic Bohemian Rhapsody for a star-studded audience at this year’s Polar Music Prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.
Watching on as Forge performed were Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor, in addition to current frontman Adam Lambert, and Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf. So it’s no surprise that Forge initially sounds a little shaky and looks nervous, even behind the mask.
Forge was joined onstage by Opeth guitarist Fredrik Åkesson, who played on Ghost’s recent Skeletá album, and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, who were originally founded in 1945.
The Polar Music Prize – described as the music world’s equivalent of the Nobel prize – is awarded every year to two or three musicians in contemporary and classical music, and Queen are one of this year’s recipients.
Receiving the award, Queen guitarist Brian May said, “In this special moment, I contemplate how that younger Brian May in 1974 would have felt if he knew that we would be living this kind of dream 50 years in the future.”
“When we started our band, we had ambitions, but never dreamed of the journey that was to follow,” said Roger Taylor. “We were fortunate in the fact that our four wildly different personalities came together to achieve a wonderful chemistry.”
Elsewhere during the ceremony, former Skid Row and current Michael Schenker singer Erik Grönwall performed Queen’s Stone Cold Crazy, while Adam Lambert sang Who Wants To Live Forever and Another One Bites The Dust.
Previous winners of the Polar Music Prize – set up by ABBA’s former manager Stig “Stikkan” Anderson in 1989 – include Paul McCartney, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Metallica, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.