Background Information 

Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the internet was filled with all kinds of content regarding her life, family, seventy year long reign on the throne and her impact on both the United Kingdom and the world. Posts began circulating almost instantly after the announcement from Buckingham Palace, some were touching tributes to her legacy, others shone a light on her ties to colonialism and some were just blatant misinformation such as a viral video about a tribute to Queen Elizabeth.

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One TikTok user, David Harry also known as @the_london_spy posted a video that went viral of a Royal Guardsman playing Brian May’s classic solo from Bohemian Rhapsody. The guardsman performed the solo on an electric guitar on a balcony of Buckingham Palace and Harry added text which read, “From one Queen to another – farewell your Majesty,” which confused many of the video’s twelve million viewers.

The video has over twenty thousand comments, many of them believing that the guitar solo was a tribute to the Queen’s passing. Commenters ranged from confusion and disbelief, “This is not what I expected to be happening there lol,” said one viewer. Some made jokes such as referencing other members of the royal family, an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, comparing the solo to an “outro song” and the movie, Minions.

Other comments that received thousands in agreement include “ain’t no way,” “So they not even taking this seriously,” “Lizzy, this is for you,” and “is this real life?”

Try a keyword search

However, this video is not a tribute to the death of the Queen, it’s from a few months earlier. Harry, who is a London tour guide originally posted the video back in July about the Horseguards Parade Concert where it originated. The solo was part of the Guard’s Spectacular at the Horseguards Parade, a tourist attraction where the changing of the guard takes place and was originally posted on TikTok on July 7th where it received over thirteen million views. Harry, did not mean to confuse viewers with the repost, he was just posting a tribute to the Queen, even specifying so in the description of the post. Despite clarifying that the video was from the Beating the Retreat in July in the description, it was widely ignored by the millions who saw it who then proceeded to repost it and their opinions.

This isn’t an easy event to fact check, just searching keywords from the video won’t get you very far and the phrasing can be confusing. For instance, it’s not clear that the Horseguards Parade is a location, not an actual parade. It’s also difficult to distinguish the difference between the Horseguards Parade Concert and the Beating the Retreat. There aren’t any websites to explain the various events but there are some tourist websites that explain the events.

Rating 

While the post wasn’t intentionally misleading, the text featured on the screen is false as the tribute was not recent, it was from July when the Queen was still alive.