Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been blasted as an “embarrassment” after a video emerged of him singing Bohemian Rhapsody at a hotel gathering days before the Queen’s state funeral.
In viral footage published to social media on Monday, Mr Trudeau was captured standing over a piano as he belted out British band Queen’s hit song at a central London hotel on Saturday night.
“Easy come, easy go, little high, little low!” he sang as Quebec pianist Gregory Charles accompanied him on the Corinthia Hotel piano.
Social media users lambasted the Canadian PM – who appeared with other members of the Canadian delegation to the royal funeral in the clip – for the “spontaneous homage”.
“Always a new way to embarrass Canada,” wrote one critic on social media. “I swear he does it on purpose.”
Some of the nay-sayers accused Mr Trudeau of being drunk in the clip, prompting at least one social media user to defend him.
“He’s not drunk and he’s not representing Canada, he on his free time. The guy can sing, can he?” wrote one commenter.
But another responded that as “a statesman”, Mr Trudeau was “always representing”.
“It’s sort of the job. This behaviour the night before Her Royal Highness’s funeral is very poor,” they said.
In the end, Mr Trudeau’s office was force to respond to the outrage.
“After dinner on Saturday, Prime Minister joined a small gathering with members of the Canadian delegation, who have come together to pay tribute to the life and service of Her Majesty,” his office said in a statement to Toronto Star on Monday (Canadian time).
“Over the past 10 days, the Prime Minister has taken part in various activities to pay his respects for the Queen, and today, the entire delegation is taking part in the state funeral.”
In a separate statement, pianist Charles told British media he played several British songs in the hotel alongside Mr Trudeau and the Canadian delegation as “homage” to the Queen.
“Have not seen a video but I did, with a small group of Canadians, get to spend a few splendid minutes with the PM late on Saturday. And there was a piano in the lobby and I did play a few UK tunes as a spontaneous homage,” he said.
