It wasn’t a song and dance number featuring Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, as many had feared, but the 91st Oscars opened in a mildly divisive style with a performance by Queen, whose biopic Bohemian Rhapsody is nominated in five categories. Fronted by Adam Lambert, the former American Idol contestant who became the band’s lead singer in 2011, Queen performed We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions to an awkwardly moshing A-list crowd.

Rami Malek, who plays Queen’s original singer Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, looked delighted during the performance, as did Lady Gaga:

However, other stars looked more nonplussed – especially Bradley Cooper and a poker-faced Christian Bale

Other stars, such as Glenn Close, also approached being rocked as a somewhat mixed blessing. However, the Guardian’s Hadley Freeman, who was in the room, reported that “in the Kodak Theater people are fricking LOVING this. Bryan May most popular person in the room.”

One of them was Javier Bardem, who two minutes into the Oscars seemed to be having the time of his life.

Released in 1977, We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions are perennial Queen live favourites, and were both performed in the Live Aid set whose recreation provides the climax of Bohemian Rhapsody. The line “no time for losers” in We Are the Champions has often been used as evidence by critics who find Queen bombastic and pompous – and may echo in the ears of those missing out on awards tonight.

More importantly, opening with Queen didn’t seem that special in the context of the Oscars, where you expect to see all the stops being pulled out. It was a rousing beginning, but an oddly low-rent one.