We’ll have no misery goats, okay? If you want to be precious about the quality of music at the expense of watching a fun, spontaneous singalong, then watch the first 1m30s of Christian playing an upright piano in a courtyard in England before skipping to another Music Man article. The video starts innocently. Casually dressed in a t-shirt, Christian is essentially playing background music.
A few shoppers stop to listen or film, but mostly people go about their business while Christian entertains them. Near the beginning of the video, someone requests Bohemian Rhapsody and Christian obliges. He is a decent pianist and the well-known song is in good hands. When Christian gets to “Mama, just killed a man” a group of young women turn the corner around the eating area, in the background.
One of the women rushes forward to sing. Soon she is joined by her friends. Clearly the women are in good spirits. Some commentators on YouTube suggest that they might be a little tipsy. I prefer to think that the sheer joy of being in the company of good friends has caused them to loose their inhabitations about singing a song they barely know any words to out of key in public. Chico Harper aptly comments, “Just when you lose hope in youth these days, they come around the corner.”
Somewhat jealously, peterwhitear7716 says, “If playing the piano brings the girls around, I’ll have to learn it quick.” Good luck Peter, but Christian has a certain je ne sais quoi. Notice how at 2m30s he leads the women into “I see a little silhouette…” and notice how his comfortable attire and his welcoming demeanour puts the glam women at ease. The video was posted on YouTube on 24 January 2023 and it already has 1.2M views. This popularity prompted the poster, Andrei Piano, to upload Pt2.
Pt 2 is an Abba melody (Money and Chiquitita) followed by Happy Birthday. (It appears that it is the birthday of the woman who rushed forward first). If the women seem to know the words a little better, there approximation of the melodies is, if anything, a little looser.
Commenting on the Bohemian Rhapsody video, many viewers complemented Christian on his ability to keep playing despite the distractions. Bikeny noted: “The ladies certainly made this performance one for the books. And his concentration in keeping the song going while they ‘performed’ really shows his expertise,” while Dr Stephie Rae Grenier quips, “Wow! I can’t believe he was able to stay on point with all that off time and off key screaming in his ear.”
If Christian is to be commended for his ability to play as well as he does in the first video, then he deserves even more praise for the second video. mrright8794 expresses his concern for Christian, “I can only hope that the lack of ear defenders for the pianist did not result in hearing loss.” Magnus Arvidsson is more forgiving of the vocalists: “Fantastic to be Swedish and to see all these beautiful women sing and dance to ABBA.” Norwood1956 has a more practical concern: “Did they tip the guy?” Happy Birthday to the woman in the mustard gown, and well done Christian.