the essential
Dubbed by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor, The Queen Extravaganza takes up the torch of the group Queen, which had a profound impact on the history of rock. Bassist and singer François-Olivier Doyon discusses the phenomenon before his arrival on March 19 on stage at the Zénith in Toulouse.
La Dépêche du Midi: Don’t you have the feeling that magic has touched your artistic journey?
François-Olivier Doyon: Exactly! It all started on the school bus that took me to school around 14 years old. I had stolen my sister’s yellow Walkman and when I put the headphones in, I just pressed play and the first song I heard was “A Kind Of Magic” by Queen. It was indeed magical!
Is this also the moment when bass entered your life?
Yes, it was the bass sound of John Deacon of Queen that fascinated me and partly made me decide to learn the instrument. My family loves music so when I was younger, I took piano lessons like my two sisters. But as the instrument more or less interested me, I only played it for 3-4 years. As a teenager, everyone wants to play music and at the school I went to there was only one concert band and the only guitar available was the bass. I had a very kind music teacher who then allowed me to go and rehearse in the music room.
However, it was not Queen who would constitute your repertoire throughout the years that followed…
That’s true, but I always liked music where the bass predominated, so I always liked pop from the late 1970s and 1980s, disco, funk, catchy and dynamic things like the music of the Chic group, for example, thanks to the bass of Bernard Edwards who is a big influence for me. And I really liked Jamiroquaï too. My brother and sister listened to everything from the 1980s, from Men At Work to Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and especially Duran Duran.
Finally, you were influenced by a lot of English groups. And Queen is not the least since you then became bassist and singer of Queen Extravaganza…
I don’t know how to categorize Queen, we classify them today as rock, even if they started with two glam rock albums. Then it mutated into something truly unique. I have the impression that if it had just been John Deacon, Roger Taylor and Brian May, it probably would have evolved into a proper rock band but with Freddie Mercury’s part, his classical influences among others, it’s become an absolutely unique entity.
In 2025, the album “A Night At The Opera” and the title “Bohemian Rhapsody” will celebrate their 50th anniversary. Are you going to adapt the show?
Everything is still falling into place so I don’t have any certainty yet. But in 2015 we celebrated the 40th anniversary and we played rare tracks in the first parts, which satisfied the absolute fans, and the album in its entirety during the second part. Then, in 2016, the first part was devoted to “A Night At The Opera” and the second to Queen’s greatest hits. What is certain is the presence of the Electric Pyramid group in Toulouse.
Do you feel a responsibility to perform the group’s repertoire?
Yes, we feel a huge weight and even more so for me who has been there since the beginning of the Queen Extravaganza project, since I was chosen by Brian May and Roger Taylor during an audition on December 8, 2011! Since that moment, I have been in disbelief of what happened to me and in 2025 I still don’t believe it! And this since the first performance on the set of the show “American Idol” in front of 28 million spectators, but also in front of Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson and Stephen Tyler of the group Aerosmith. When we find ourselves on the world’s great stages, it’s truly impressive and it’s always an immense pleasure as well as a great honor to perform this repertoire. Especially since with the whole team and the group, made up of six musicians, we have an eye for detail. The show is quite incredible, from the lights to the stage set-up, everything is redesigned for each tour. We’re bringing Queen’s repertoire back to life!
Is this also what makes Queen Extravaganza strong compared to other tribute bands?
The group is not into imitation or parody but the vocal and physical resemblances of singer Marc Mantel are quite impressive. And what also differentiates us from other tribute bands is having access to the advice of Roger Taylor and Spike Edney, who was the keyboard and musical director of Queen in the 1980s. We can refer to unpublished video archives, which enhances the shows in an incredible way.
