What does Bohemian Rhapsody mean?

Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody Meaning

Album cover for Bohemian Rhapsody album cover

Song Released: 1975


Covered By: Panic! At The Disco (2016), Pentatonix (2017)


Get "Bohemian Rhapsody" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

Bohemian Rhapsody Lyrics

Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
Little high, little low
Any way...

  1. anonymous
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    Apr 22nd 2018 !⃝

    Despite what people have said about this being just a man who murders someone, I believe that this song is actually about a soldier coming back home from a war and dealing with PTSD symptoms (hallucinations, tremors, etc). Because of his PTSD, he is debating whether or not to kill himself ("let me/him go" refers to the voices as to whether they should let him go to the afterlife or not), as he sees himself as nothing and that he does not matter because of the atrocities he may have committed/seen as a soldier. I'm not sure how this would be related to any of Freddie Mercury's background or not, but this is just what I interpreted the song to be.

  2. anonymous
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    Apr 12th 2018 !⃝

    For me it is so clear that is all about the Fred Mercury epiphany to assume his homossexuality.
    The man he killed was the fake of the masculin figure (the mach side) he tried to pretend he was until then. He new his mother would be sad with the public declaration of his homossexual condiction, but he shows that it was not possible to be hidden anylonger.
    He had fought against his internal demons and got to the conclusion he couldn’t hold the lie anymore and had to assume it or die.
    “Sometimes I wish I haven’t been born at all” is a common phrase you can hear from gays during their conflicts searching for their own identity until they get in peace with their real and natural sexual condiction.

  3. anonymous
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    Apr 8th 2018 !⃝

    I think my interpretation is a little bit different, and who knows if it's right!
    I think that this song is about a guy who kills someone. I think that the man is younger, because he says how his life had just begun, and now he's thrown it away. I think that he goes on the run, from either the law or something else. I think after he's been on the run for awhile he gets tired of it, and he turns himself in. The line says "Gotta leave you all behind a face the truth".
    Then I think that he goes on death row, because he says he doesn't want to die. The silhouette of a man could be someone coming to get him for the execution. Thunder bolts and lightning could be the electric chair. Then I think that all the nonsense is him imagining what the afterlife is going to be like, whether he goes to heaven or hell. I think that he thinks he will go to hell because of the line about Beezlebub, who is the devil. I think that the reason he keeps saying 'Mama' is because he is writing a letter or something to his mother, telling her to forgot about him and the bad things he's done and to move on. I assume that he is also going a little crazy because he is like screaming and saying he needs to get out, and then it gets quieter and says nothing matters.
    Idk honestly:)

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  4. anonymous
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    Apr 8th 2018 !⃝

    I love most of the suggestions and I agree with most.
    but my interpretation of this song is a man who has killed someone and he is descending into madness as he cannot believe what he has done so that why as the song progresses the tone gets more upbeat and as his mind is trying to comprehend what he has done. the song gets more upbeat because it starts off slow as he is fairly sure that it's not real "is this the real life or is this just fantasy" he is questioning himself and when he realises that he has killed this man he can't believe it and tells someone to clear things up which sends him to prison on death row which leads up to him spiralling down and down, and at the end of the song he is finally put to death hence "a devil put aside for me" as he has gone to hell to face his demons.
    (I understand that ppl might not agree with this but this is how I feel about the song)

  5. anonymous
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    Jan 7th 2018 !⃝

    I thing it is about a boy who in deep depression and has been dumped by his girlfriend. The boy's family might be in bad place with the law too.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  6. anonymous
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    Oct 29th 2017 !⃝

    its about a young man that committed murder and is explaining his feelings and his thoughts to his family, but in some parts his family and the family of the man who was murdered say what they want to happen to the man that killed.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
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    Oct 26th 2017 !⃝

    The meaning that was told was that a boy killed someone, and is telling his mother, but the hidden meaning is actually Freddie fantasising about what his life would have been like if he had come out. "Mama, just killed a man" He is killing his straight self, "Didn't mean to make you cry" his family is homophobic, "I see a little silhouetto of a man" this is his gay self haunting him.

  8. anonymous
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    Oct 9th 2017 !⃝

    This is a cover of an older song by Queen. It's about fighting your inner demons and trying to be you when you're being pushed and pulled in so many different directions at once.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
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    Oct 4th 2017 !⃝

    In the beginning of the song they're saying that they're at rock bottom and that no matter what happens wouldn't really matter to them because it doesn't change their lives in anyway. Later in the song it mentions them dying and how they wish they had never been born due to depression and having to deal with all of their problems in their life and they insist on letting him go but no one will because they want to help out in his life and make it better and he keeps fighting them to let him go. Later the people eventually get to him and help him and he gets enlightened by the fact people will help and his problems start to turn into normal problems that a middle class man would have.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  10. anonymous
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    Sep 21st 2017 !⃝

    i wonder who he was singing about...maybe the zionist elitists killing people and escaping arrest, while regular people are convicted and executed.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
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    Aug 4th 2017 !⃝

    Bohemian Grove is an elite "club". I believe it refers to this. There were strong band links to the upper echelons of academia in the U.K. So it is likely, very likely that thing would have been heard. Google it- much to complex and controversial to cite in any detail here.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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    Jul 7th 2017 !⃝

    Who cares about the meaning. Just enjoy the song.RIP Freddy.

  13. HelenalovesBeebo
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    May 16th 2017 !⃝

    A F***ING AWESOME COVER OF QUEEN'S ORIGINAL VERSION. In my opinion, it is WAY better than the original. Brendon Urie did a fantastic job.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  14. anonymous
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    Apr 20th 2017 !⃝

    Now, here's a thought:

    I believe that Bohemian Rhapsody was never meant to have a meaning. Often in the song, the lyrics have nothing to do with eachother, and one could consider that it's just the ramblings of a crazy person, except it's not. It's Queen writing a song meant to be listened to, not overanalyzed or read. It's supposed to be uncrackable, a puzzle to keep us listening, 'till the end of time.

    And, indeed we will.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. David LP
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    Mar 22nd 2017 !⃝

    This song, in my opinion speaks of the suicide of the young man, says "Mom, I just killed a man, I put a gun on his head, I pulled the trigger, now he's dead", later says that it has to go, Specifies to which man he killed, he only says "to a man", then leaves an incognita of whom of the man is assassinated.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway



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