JOHANNESBURG – A video of a โyoung South African โฃboy strugglingโฃ to pronounce the lyrics to the British โคband โขQueen‘s “Bohemianโข Rhapsody” has โgone viral, captivating audiences worldwide and sparking a wave of supportive reactions. โThe clip, initially โsharedโข on October 14,โ 2025, quickly amassed millions of views across โplatforms like TikTok and Xโ (formerly Twitter).
The boy, โฃidentified as nine-year-old Liamโ Vos, fromโ Cape Town,โ South Africa, attemptsโข to sing alongโฃ to the complex operatic section of the 1975 hit. His earnest effort,โ punctuatedโค by charming mispronunciations of challenging English words, resonated deeply โwith viewers, highlightingโค bothโ the song’s enduring appeal and the worldwideโค experience of learning a new language. The video’s popularity โunderscores theโ power of social media to connectโ people through shared moments of joy โฃandโ cultural exchange.
Vos’s โฃattemptโ to tackle Freddieโข Mercury’s iconicโค vocals has promptedโค an outpouring of encouragement and praise. Many โcommenters have lauded his โขbravery and enthusiasm, while others have offered helpful pronunciation tips. The video has also ignited conversations about the challenges faced by non-native English speakers and the importance of celebrating linguistic diversity.
The facebook Pixel โคcode embedded in the original source material-including ids 302606803792956, 1686812171577318, and โฃapp ID 912116128862505-indicates the video’s initial sharingโ platform likely utilized Facebook’s tracking tools to monitor engagement and perhaps target similar content to relevant audiences.โค The presence of the Facebook JavaScript SDK suggests integration with Facebook Login โคfunctionality, though the window.isFacebookLogin โฃ variable was initially set to โ false.โข The โคcode also reveals tracking โฃof “PageView” events via fbq('track', 'PageView') and FB.AppEvents.logPageView(), standard practices for website analytics.
Afrikaans, one of South Africa’s eleven official languages, โฃshares roots with Dutch but differs considerably fromโฃ English in pronunciationโ and grammar.While English is โขwidely โspoken inโฃ South Africa, particularly in urbanโ areas, manyโ childrenโ like Vos are still developing โขtheir proficiency. The โviral videoโข serves โขas a lighthearted reminder of the complexities of language acquisition and the endearing moments that arise along the way.