Rami Malek is getting plenty of buzz for his role as Freddie Mercury in the Oscar-nominated film Bohemian Rhapsody. While people are split over whether the movie deserves to win Best Picture, we think we can agree on the fact that the music in the film was amazing—it's Queen’s original catalog of hits, after all.
But one question keeps popping up about Malek's turn as the legendary Queen frontman:
Does Rami Malek actually sing in Bohemian Rhapsody?
It turns out, the answer is both yes and no.
According to Rolling Stone, Malek did his best to prepare for the role, including diving deep into Mercury’s history by watching every clip and video he could get his hands on. He also worked with a movement coach to get his dance moves on point, as well as a dialogue coach to nail Mercury’s accent. He even wore prosthetic teeth to mimic Mercury’s famous overbite.
“He had a real insecurity about that,” Malek told Rolling Stone. “If you watch an interview with him, you see how often he’s trying to cover up his teeth with his lips or his hand.”
But Malek could never replicate that unparalleled singing voice (and really, who could?), which is why, according to Rolling Stone, the majority of the music in the film relies on vocal stems from Queen master tapes or new recordings by Marc Martel, a Canadian Christian rock singer who sounds eerily similar to Mercury.
To sum things up, the voice you hear in the film "is an amalgamation of a few voices," Malek told Metro. “But predominantly it is my hope, and the hope of everyone, that we will hear as much Freddie as possible. I think that is the goal for all of us.”
Producer Graham King was happy with the results: “Literally, you could close your eyes and it’s Freddie,” King told Rolling Stone. “And that’s a very tough thing to do.”
All of this mixing and remastering was fine with Malek, who told The New York Times: “No one wants to hear me sing.”
