Student Protest Gets Queen Song Re-released

1992

Concerned that students are identifying with Freddie Mercury, who has recently died of AIDS, the principal at Sacred Heart School in Clifton, New Jersey, doesn't allow 8th graders to perform the Queen song "We Are The Champions" at their graduation ceremony. When students flood the radio station Z100 with requests for the song, it is re-released as a single.

Just a few months before the 8th graders at Sacred Heart School start preparations for their graduation ceremony, Wayne's World hits movie theaters across the US, featuring a head-banging send-up to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" that lands the re-released single at #2 on the Hot 100, 17 years after its debut. Starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as the rock-obsessed slackers they originated on Saturday Night Live, the movie is one of the most successful films of the year. It also revitalizes US interest in Queen, especially among teens who are eager to hear the rest of the British rockers' catalog, including the 1977 victory anthem "We Are The Champions." Over at Sacred Heart, a conservative Catholic school that boasts "excellent education alongside high moral values," students are furious when Principal Donald Quinlan, protecting the school's moral high ground from the bisexual dead rock star, denies them the right to cap their tenure as champions of the world - or at least of Sacred Heart. "If they wanted to sing 'I'm Popeye the Sailor Man,' that wouldn't be appropriate at a religious graduation," Sacred Heart pastor Julian Varettoni insists to the Associated Press. "This has nothing to do with the lifestyle of the author." The students aren't convinced and invite the group ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) to protest on campus, where two of the activists are arrested by waiting police. When the students bombard their local radio station with requests for the song, the story becomes a national headline and inspires a re-release as a medley with "We Will Rock You." The single only peaks at #52, but it's a big win for the kids at Sacred Heart, whose graduation ceremony is canceled over the controversy.