With the Nepal release of the much-anticipated Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody around the corner, the film’s distributor, Apple Entertainment, has teamed up with producer 20th Century Fox to organise a ‘Queen Tribute Band’ contest.

The organisers have issued a release inviting interested artists to upload a cover of one of their favourite songs by the rock-and-roll band Queen, the subject of the film. The winner of the contest will get a chance to perform live at four venues around Kathmandu.

Directed by Bryan Singer, whose filmography includes titles such as The Usual Suspects and X-Men, Bohemian Rhapsody is said to be a “foot-stomping celebration” of the band and their music. It stars Rami Malek of Mr Robot fame as frontman Freddie Mercury, whom the film focuses on. The film initially released in the UK on Wednesday and has received mixed reviews from the international press.

“Malek makes the role his own: he seems to be possessed by both the pouting, preening showman Mercury was in public and the sulky lost soul he could be in private,” BBC’s Nicholas Barber contended in his three-star review. “Bohemian Rhapsody may bore you or irritate you for an hour so. But, eventually, it will rock you and it might just move you, too.”

Likewise, Indiewire’s David Ehrlich’s hailed Malek’s performance while lambasting the film, which according to him, was “royally embarrassing” and a “feature-length Queen ad.” He further wrote, “The critical failure of Bohemian Rhapsody is that, 134 minutes after the lights go down, the members of Queen just seem like four blokes who’ve been processed through the rusty machinery of a Hollywood biopic.”

The first of the ‘Queen Tribute Band contest’ shows will take place at Moksh in Jhamsikhel on Saturday, October 27, 7 pm onwards; Bohemian Rhapsody will release in Nepali multiplexes on November 2.