Hātea Kapa Haka's te reo Māori cover of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody goes viral

William Wairua and the team in their epic video covering Queen. Photo / Facebook

The Hātea Kapa Haka group, from Whangārei, have found online fame after their awesome cover of Queen's iconic hit 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in Te Reo Māori went viral on Facebook.

The group, who collaborated with internet sensation William Wairua, created the music video as a way to pay tribute to the band's lead singer, Freddie Mercury, and to celebrate the release of the Queen biopic, also titled 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

Hātea Kapa Haka head tutor Pauline Hopa said: "I have always loved the song, Bohemian Rhapsody. But never in my life did I think that we would be part of something this big."

William Waiirua x Queen x Hatea Kapa Haka - Te Reo Bohemian Rhapsody

When you get caught out, but know that an entire Kapa Haka Group is halllways close by to liaise .... Is this the real life.....is this just fantasty.... #Queen #BohemianRhapsody #WhattaBeauty #HateaKapaHaka#WilliamWaiirua

Posted by William Waiirua on Monday, 26 November 2018

"We only had two weeks to sort the song out with our group ... So we really had to get the team moulded because this was something new for us and some of our younger vocalists didn't know the song. Once they did, it was like 'woah!'."

The music arrangement was conducted by David Tāpene, while the lyrics were translated by his daughter Te Amohaere Morehu, Otene Hopa and Raniera Harrison.

The video was shot at Waiwera, north of Auckland.

The video, posted to William Waiirua's Facebook page, has received over 3,000 likes and been shared over 2,000 times.

This article was originally published on The Hits and is republished here with permission.