The Albany Gazette - Pianist behind Paris 'Bohemian Rhapsody' flash mob aims higher

The "flash mob" Queen video has been viewed roughly 600 million times since being posted online in early September.

Backing singers appear at windows around the Place de la Contrescarpe, a child prodigy performs the famous guitar solo, and organiser Julien Cohen leads the troupe of 30 performers on a grand piano.

The 32-year-old Frenchman, who was already known as an online content creator, was the brains behind the idea and footed the 50,000-euro ($57,000) bill himself.

"I didn't expect such success, but of course if I did it and invested so much in it, it's because I believed in it," he told AFP.

His latest project is even bigger, featuring 100 classical musicians performing five different songs including "Believer" by Imagine Dragons on a boulevard in central Paris.

It cost 300,000 euros and the first video -- of the Christmas carol "Carol of the Bells" -- has already been viewed more than nine million times on social media platforms since being published on Monday.

"It might seem like a race to get bigger and bigger, but I really enjoy doing ambitious things," said the Cambridge University graduate, an admirer of the world's most popular YouTuber MrBeast.

YouTube's biggest content creators such as MrBeast are moving into more expensive productions that resemble the sort of big-budget creations previously reserved for television stations.

Fellow American creators such as Dhar Mann or Alan Chikin Chow have also created their own media companies with studios to produce content and series, further blurring the line between traditional TV and the online worlds.

AFP witnessed the filming of Cohen's latest Christmas-themed video earlier this month, revealing how he produces the perfectly coordinated choreography and captures the surprise on the faces of observers.

He had 50 camera operators working to film the performers, as well as the reaction of the crowd, while some of the music was pre-recorded.

In total, there were three performances of each song, with editors then choosing the best takes from the footage for the final cut.

"It has to be top-quality," Cohen explained, saying the aim was to entertain without making viewers think about the "huge amount of work" required to create it.

(B.Smith--TAG)