Queen will perform at the Oscars

Queen and singer Adam Lambert will perform live at this year’s Oscars, it’s been confirmed.

The Academy tweeted the news last night: “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? We welcome @QueenWillRock and @AdamLambert to this year’s #Oscars.”

The touring line-up of Queen comprises original band members Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, with singer Lambert, a former runner up on American Idol and vocalist with Queen since 2011.

Bass player John Deacon retired from the band in 1997.

The movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which profiles the legendary rock band, is up for five Oscars this year, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Rami Malek, who plays legendary frontman Freddie Mercury.

It has, however, been mired in controversy since its release, increasingly so since new allegations of sexual assault by its director, Bryan Singer, have emerged.

The news comes days after the Academy announced that it was scrapping plans to shunt certain Oscar presentations into the annual award show’s commercial breaks, and then air abridged footage later.

The news was met with an industry-wide backlash supported by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and a host of A-list actors.

The move was intended to shorten the show’s notoriously lengthy three-hour run-time, but will now go on as normal.

Joining Queen for the show’s musical interludes will be Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Hudson, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and Bette Midler.

Welch and Rawlings singing When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Midler performing The Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns.

Gaga and Cooper will sing Shallow from A Star Is Born, and Hudson will perform I’ll Fight from the documentary RBG.

The Oscars take place on February 24.

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