Is there a hidden message in Queen song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’?

The beauty of most art forms is that meaning can be applied almost anywhere. In music, most artists are aware that when they release a song or album, it generally stops being theirs, landing into the hungry hands of their audiences and exploding into countless interpretations. While this can be said of almost any Queen song, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ always feels particularly complex when placed under the microscope.

From the start, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was a dark horse with everything going against it. However, the band backed it all the way, convincing others that this wasn’t just a song that could thrive; it also demanded to be heard. After all, the song didn’t just emerge in defiance; it reinvented the entire structure of a soaring ballad, establishing a new meaning of storytelling that felt both euphoric and melancholic.

At the crux of its success was that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ also never gave away much. It might sound whimsical on the surface, but underneath lies a dark truth about making mistakes and never earning forgiveness. And, above all, its catchiness and garbled lyrics also mean most people have barely given any thought to its meaning at all. Perhaps that’s its underlying beauty: it could be anything.

So, what is the meaning behind ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’?

Even without the specific details of the story, like the boy committing murder for the sake of it, it’s a tale of the perils of freedom of choice that most can relate to. And, despite the convoluted nature of most of the song’s lyrics, these are the parts we know to be true. However, there’s also something lurking beneath the surface, something far less overt unless you go digging, that could point towards Freddie Mercury’s own disillusionment.

Throughout the song, its inherent darkness is clear. Even when it’s veiled in lyrics that make light of it, the melancholy of feeling displaced in society persists, like the shadowy, confessional framing of their faces during the opening section when we’re told to look up “and see”. Intertwined with sinister wordplay, the song entertains fantasy as a conduit for Mercury’s suffering, whether relating to his sexuality or the struggles of his childhood.

As Brian May later said, Mercury “was a very complex person: flippant and funny on the surface, but he concealed insecurities and problems in squaring up his life with his childhood.” On ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, he added: “He never explained the lyrics, but I think he put a lot of himself into that song.” At the same time, May and the rest of the band made it clear they preferred the song’s interpretation to be left open, even if some see it as a clear “coming out” anthem bursting out of Mercury without space for much else.

In this way, it could be seen that the man killed at the beginning is Mercury himself, or a version of himself he made up to appease his family and society. Thus, the silhouette he sees could be his past continuing to haunt him, no matter how much he tries to get away or work on being his truest self. Either way, the different ways the song can be viewed make it one of the most accomplished achievements of Queen’s entire discography, lingering somewhere between fantastical and authentic.