A founding member of super group Queen, Brian May, has shared a video of Hawke's Bay student Shaqaila Uelese performing her impromptu version of the band's hit Bohemian Rhapsody on a public piano.
The clip, recorded by her younger brother in Napier's Emerson St, went viral after Hawke's Bay Todaypublished a story about the popular rendition last month. Ms Uelese never expected it to reach, let alone be picked up by a member of Queen.
"It was Sunday morning, somebody commented on my video saying Brian May had shared it - I was really surprised. I was quite shocked by the views and comments ... my Mum's friends were stoked, they didn't believe me [at first] I had to do screen shots and print shots to show them."
May's Facebook post has now been shared 4299 times, garnered 9128 "likes" and 628 comments - he also posted about the performance on Twitter with the tag line, "this is lovely". May is regarded as one of the best rock guitarists ever and was a founding member of the band with frontman Freddie Mercury.
Ms Uelese, who has been playing piano for 10 years, loaded her four-and-a-half minute video to YouTube following its social media success, where last night it had been viewed 640,079 times. The unexpected publicity has opened doors for Uelese, a 20-year-old Massey University psychology student, who also volunteers her time to play piano in the main foyer of Wellington Hospital every week.
"There's quite a few companies who have been asking me to write stuff for them and I'm going on Tagata Pasifika on TV1, another reporter from TV3 is interviewing me at Wellington Hospital, where I volunteer, for Music Month.
"I thought it would die down by now, but I'm still getting messages about people sharing it overseas," she said,
More recently, her friends launched a campaign to have her performance aired on the Ellen show.
"It was my friends' idea, they sent the video and a few other people sent it in as well, I'm a big Ellen fan so I was pretty stoked." The "street piano" played by Miss Uelese, was installed on Emerson St in December last year by Napier Inner City Marketing and Creative Napier.
To watch her rendition, visit her Facebook page: Shaqaila Uelese Music.
