5 Seconds Of Summer Do Their Best Freddie Mercury On 'Killer Queen' Cover

Earlier this year, 5 Seconds of Summer reappeared on the music scene with expensive haircuts, even more expensive leather jackets, as well as a sleeker sound that pivoted sharply away from their pop-punk roots. The guitars were still there, although as a substitute opposed to heaping on the power chords, they’d amble into vibey new-wave territory or support fragile heartbreak worries.


Their Youngblood album dropped over the summer, and right now, just several months later, 5SOS have taken their determined more polished sound into the hallowed halls of operatic classic rock, covering the theatrical “Killer Queen” for the upcoming Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s the second cover we’ve heard from the film right after Shawn Mendes and teddy<3’s acoustic take on “Under Pressure.”


Here, Luke, Michael, Calum, and Ashton wrap their voices around each other (as they often do) to redeveloped the lightheaded heights Mercury achieves on the Queen classic’s chorus. It’s so faithful — both in the vocal tightness and the guitar tone — that you may briefly pretend it’s the real thing. Although once the verses start, the lonely instrumentation feels very much like Youngblood.


This particular song choice could've put 5SOS in a tricky spot, given its dynamic complexities. However the production here sounds very expensive, also, (and good), and yes it should! It’s a Queen song. As a result, it’s an excuse to throw in everything nevertheless the proverbial sink to aim for the theater rafters.


“We chose to cover, ‘Killer Queen’ because we kept hearing it while writing our third album, Youngblood, and were so enamored by the production and their early realization of the minimalist approach to the track,” the musical group said in an accompanying statement. “For us, the exploration of individual vocalists in a musical group is incredibly critical and Queen helped us to be able to see the future of how we aspire to sing, additionally to how we play our instruments. As a pioneer of individuality, Freddie taught us what it means to embrace the idea of truly being yourself and that’s a segment of Queen that lives on in their music right now, more than ever.”


Like with “Under Pressure,” proceeds from the sale of the song benefit the Mercury Phoenix Trust, which some surviving members of Queen set up soon after Mercury’s death to help fight HIV/AIDS. Stream 5SOS’s faithful “Killer Queen” cover above before Bohemian Rhapsody hits theaters November 2.