Queen share video of Peoria tween singing on social
The official Queen Twitter and Facebook accounts have shared a video of local preteen Vedder Gabriel singing “Somebody to Love” for Fan Friday.
Valley concertgoers will more than likely recognize the 11-year-old, who lives in Peoria with twin sister Winter and parents Eric and Desiree Ellis.
Garbriel is actually his middle name but it’s become his stage name.
When Gabriel was 7, Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto plucked him from the audience, where he’d been sitting on his father’s shoulders, to join him on “Night of the Hunter” at 30 Seconds to Mars’ inaugural Camp Mars music festival in Malibu, California.
Since then, he’s become a fixture on the Valley concert scene, re-joining Leto on stage here in Phoenix and singing “Tennessee Whiskey” with Chris Stapleton, “Know Your Enemy” with Green Day, “Dead and Bloated” with Stone Temple Pilots and “Last Time for Everything”
with Brad Paisley, among others.
He also has a band now called Too Loud, whose set list features songs by Queen, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Black Sabbath, Cream and Boston.
They’re playing the Mesa Music Festival at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at Main Street Bar & Grill.
If you’re wondering how this came together, Gabriel’s dad, Eric Ellis, says, “Ved goes live everyday on Instagram and sings 4-5 songs he’s working on. He went on the balcony, recorded it and tagged Queen. Early Monday morning, Queen responded.”
It’s an a cappella version of the song because as Ellis says, “Queen is so copyright-protected that if you play the music in the background, Instagram kicks you off so when he goes live with Queen songs, he has to sing them a cappella
In their social media posts, Queen called the song “a great video from the very talented Vedder Gabriel.”