One warm summer day, a young woman named Ariane Racicot scrolled up to a piano set up in a public place. At first, no one noticed her.
But then she started to play one of the best-known songs in rock ‘n roll, and people began to take notice.
The young pianist uses every key on the board to turn attention to her rendition of one of the greatest songs in popular music, “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
According to her Facebook page, Ariane is a jazz pianist who trained at the University of Montreal. I’m sure her school has her practicing complex scales and developing her own piano attitude, but for this song she will need all her lessons.
Freddie Mercury of the British Rock Band Queen composed the song on piano, and he didn’t pull any fist-pumping punches, or fingering forte.
The late great Freddie Mercury and his band Queen solidified their place in Rock ‘n Roll history in large part due to the release of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Universal Music Group recently noted the track as the most streamed song of the 20th century.
The Guardian explains the song’s complexity with “its huge variety of styles – from intro, to ballad, to operatic excess, to hard-rock, to reflective coda.”
The prog-rock ditty is a tour de force in piano playing, and a perfect pop song to draw a crowd in a public space.
Picturesque weather always brings folks out to enjoy what the city has to offer.
These folks were glad they got out of the house today, as they were treated to this pianist’s virtuoso rendition. A group out of Montreal created a program called “Piano of the cities, piano of the fields.”
Pianos are set up in interesting places around the Canadian city and offered to anyone who wants to play. The idea has been a big hit with many major cities around the world setting up their own pianos to allow professionals or amateurs to step up to the old agony box.
Some days, amazing musicians like Ariane find the pianos and show their skills to the unsuspecting.
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” is considered Queen’s best song by Billboard Magazine.
That article says that “Even Queen’s quiet sounded big, and its big was designed to shake the Earth.”
Other songs that top the list are “Under Pressure” featuring David Bowie, and the stadium favorite “We Will Rock You.” Maybe we can coax Ariane to try her hand, or hands at these songs next time.
There’s a moment in the video when a little girl dressed in a pink polka dot skirt, drops a few coins on the piano seat.
A well-deserved expression of gratitude, and it looks like Ariane could earn some extra spending cash as a weekend Busker.
This video has incredible camera work and editing which bring a extra visual level to Ariana’s piano playing.
Queen created one of the world’s first music videos for “Bohemian Rhapsody” back in 1976.
It included elaborate camera work and lighting to create some stunning eye candy. The promotional video, was such a hit, it changed the industry and led to MTV and music videos as a mainstay in a musician’s creative arsenal.
Queen guitarist Brian May had this to say to Rolling Stone, “And suddenly you couldn’t possibly put out a record without having a video and the video locked in people’s minds in terms of how they visualized the song.”
As Ariane, glides through the soft and melodic last bars of the song, the crowd is enthralled and they burst into applause and shout for more.
Not only does the gesture make Ariana blush, but it is obvious the moment will carry with the folks who were lucky enough to be there in person.
And because of the great work behind the camera, we can watch and enjoy this moment over and over again.
What a great performance, and it’s so fun to watch Ariane banging away on the keys. She has some serious talent.
Check out Ariane playing in the video below!
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