How a Zulu Bohemian Rhapsody Put a Choir on Roger Taylor’s Album

The first voices on Roger Taylor’s new album do not belong to a rock band. They belong to a choir from Limpopo, South Africa. The Ndlovu Youth Choir sings on A Beautiful World, the song that opens Violence Insane in a Beautiful World, and on two more tracks across the record.

Roger Taylor releases the album on Friday 18 September through Columbia. It is the seventh album in a solo career that stretches back to 1977, and his first since Outsider, the 2021 album that his site describes as a top three record, according to his official site.

The Choir Behind a Zulu Bohemian Rhapsody

The Ndlovu Youth Choir first came to wide attention with a Zulu-language translation of Bohemian Rhapsody. That is how Taylor found them. He said he was delighted when he became aware of the choir, called their version of the Queen song fabulous, and admitted he could hardly believe it when he first saw it.

The idea to put them on his own record came quickly. Taylor said the choir’s parts transformed the songs and gave them a whole new dimension, and that he was thrilled with the result, according to his official site and Hotpress.

The choir appears on A Beautiful World, on the single Come On Summer (It’s Party Time), and on the closing reprise, A Great Big Beautiful World. Their voices therefore open and close the album.

A Record Taylor Wrote, Played and Produced

Queen’s drummer did most of the heavy lifting himself. According to his official site, Taylor wrote, sang and performed all of the songs on the album, with help from long-time collaborator Joshua J. Macrae, members of his live band and the choir. The vinyl credits list the album as produced by Roger Taylor and Joshua J. Macrae.

The one song he did not write is a cover of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy, which Taylor describes as one of the greatest ballads ever written. It sits on the second side, between Spit in His Eye and Come On Summer (It’s Party Time).

Taylor still thinks of himself as a musician first. He pointed out that he always sang with Queen, taking the higher harmony line when Freddie Mercury dipped down, and said he still loves playing the drums. The new album puts all of those roles on the record at once.

Ten Tracks Built Around One Idea

The tracklist runs across two sides of vinyl. Side one: A Beautiful World, Violence Insane, What Really Matters, Don’t Photograph Food and I See You Now. Side two: Chump, Spit in His Eye, Jealous Guy, Come On Summer (It’s Party Time) and A Great Big Beautiful World (reprise).

Taylor is clear that it is not a concept record, but it does have a theme, and he says it is spelled out in the title. The world is beautiful, and people should stop damaging it. He described the violence in the world as being as bad as at any point in his lifetime, and pointed to plastics in the sea, wars and hatred between religions, according to NME.

The tone is not bleak. Taylor said the world remains beautiful and that kindness, which he feels has been forgotten, is the underlying message of the album.

The latest single ahead of release is I See You Now, according to the Pause and Play release listings, which also credit Taylor and Macrae as producers.

An Alien’s View of Earth, and NASA’s Verdict

The lead song gives the album its sleeve. Taylor said A Beautiful World is an old idea, written from the point of view of an alien in a spacecraft orbiting the planet. The visitor thinks the Earth is beautiful, then looks closer and sees the violence and horrors, before listing all the great things about the place.

The artwork turned into a coincidence. While Taylor was finishing the sleeve, NASA’s Artemis II mission, on its way to the far side of the Moon, photographed Earth from a distance. According to his official site, Queen fans working at NASA in Houston reported that everyone there liked the sleeve and thought the timing was kismet.

Taylor has his own connection to the agency. He said the band toured the NASA site in Houston while on the road, sat in the control room while staff spoke to the International Space Station, and noted that his bandmate Brian May knows many of the people there well.

Eclecticism as a House Style

Like his earlier solo work, the album moves between styles. Taylor said he likes eclecticism and pointed to the Beatles as the model, especially their later albums from Revolver onwards, where the next track could be completely different from the one before.

He said Queen always tried to do the same thing, making very different songs and going where no sensible band would. On the new album, he said, he expects listeners to enjoy the more surreal material most.

His official site notes that, as throughout his solo career, the album takes in a wide range of styles and sounds. Songs with titles as different as Violence Insane, What Really Matters and Don’t Photograph Food sit side by side on the first side of the record.

Six UK Nights, With Tickets Tied to the Album

Taylor announced the album on 10 June, releasing Come On Summer (It’s Party Time) with the Ndlovu Youth Choir on the same day. NME reported that fans who pre-ordered the album between 10 and 13 June received a code for a ticket pre-sale on 15 June, ahead of general sale on 17 June.

Linking the tour to album pre-orders was deliberate. His official site says that fans who pre-order get exclusive first access to tickets for what will be his only UK shows of the year, a way of rewarding the people most likely to buy the record in the first place.

Taylor was modest about the demand. Asked whether people want to see him live, he said he hoped that at least some would, and described the short tour as putting a toe in the water rather than a full-scale campaign. I See You Now then followed as the latest preview before release day.

The album comes with a short run of UK shows, which Taylor says will be his only UK dates of the year. He said he wanted to test the water with six or seven shows, playing neither clubs nor arenas, and that he will bring the band he assembled for the Outsider tour.

According to NME, the dates are: Newcastle O2 City Hall on 21 September, Edinburgh Usher Hall on 22 September, Birmingham The Alexandra on 24 September, Manchester Opera House on 25 September, London Roundhouse on 28 September and Swansea Building Society Arena on 29 September.

The album is available on Earth Blue vinyl through independent shops and HMV, as a picture disc from Taylor’s own store, on black vinyl, on CD and on an Amazon-exclusive CD with an alternative cover.

Where Queen Fits In

The release also keeps attention on Queen. NME noted that Taylor has previously hinted at new music from the band, almost 30 years after Made in Heaven, the 15th and final studio album, which was released in 1995 following the death of Freddie Mercury in 1991.

RockRevival.News has also been following other long-awaited records from heritage acts, and reported recently that Soundgarden now expect the final Cornell album in 2027. Roger Taylor has chosen a different route: a solo record written and produced on his own terms, carried by a choir that first reached him through one of his band’s most famous songs.

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