Sweden’s rock’n’roll firebrands Royal Republic have taken another glitter-soaked swing at music history, dropping a ferocious reimagining of the Bee Gees’ disco immortal, Stayin’ Alive.
The single marks the third chapter in the band’s eccentric and unhinged Blastbeaters saga, a four-part series of covers that sees the quartet reinvent some of pop culture’s most iconic songs with their trademark swagger, distortion and tongue-in-cheek theatrics.
Royal Republic aren’t strangers to flipping expectations on their head. They introduced The Blastbeaters project with a thunderous cover of Shocking Blue’s Venus, before cranking up the chaos with a sax-drenched, glitter-heavy version of The Pointer Sisters’ I’m So Excited. Both tracks gave fans a taste of what was to come – bold reinventions that have little interest in staying faithful to their source material.
Now it’s the Bee Gees’ turn.
Where Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb built Stayin’ Alive on falsetto harmonies and disco grooves, Royal Republic strip it down and build it back up into a wall of snarling guitars, pounding drums and razor-sharp riffs. Their version is falsetto-free, unapologetically loud, and unmistakably theirs.
“This is us tipping our hat to one of the greatest bands ever, but doing it in our own voice,” the band said in a statement. “You can love the Bee Gees and still sound like Royal Republic. That’s the point.”
It’s not just a cover, it’s a reinvention. The new track encourages fans to turn off the lights, crank up the volume, and surrender to a sound that’s far more gasoline-soaked inferno than disco ball sparkle.
Stayin’ Alive arrives with a companion video that adds another chapter to the ongoing story of The Blastbeaters, Royal Republic’s corpse-painted, spike-wearing, Volvo-driving alter-egos. These fictional Black Metal caricatures are depicted as chaotic anti-heroes chasing world domination through questionable decisions, loud guitars and plenty of glitter.
In this alternate universe, The Blastbeaters take on the mantle of disco rebels, reworking classics with a metal edge and a complete disregard for musical boundaries. With Stayin’ Alive, they continue their bizarre mission with more swagger than ever.
Fans can expect a finale to the saga in the months ahead, with one more instalment yet to be unveiled.
Royal Republic formed in Malmö, Sweden in 2007, when vocalist and guitarist Adam Grahn teamed up with guitarist Hannes Irengård, bassist Jonas Almén and drummer Per Andreasson. By 2010, they had released their debut album We Are the Royal, a record that put them on the map across Europe with singles like Tommy-Gun and Full Steam Spacemachine.
Follow-up albums Save the Nation (2012), Weekend Man (2016) and Club Majesty (2019) cemented their reputation for crafting hard-hitting rock songs with danceable grooves and an irreverent sense of humour. Club Majesty, in particular, leaned heavily into a disco-rock aesthetic, showing that Royal Republic were unafraid to blur genres long before The Blastbeaters came along.
The band’s relentless touring schedule has seen them win fans across Europe, the US and Australia, where their festival sets have built a cult following. Their reputation is simple: a Royal Republic show is loud, sweaty, funny, and impossible not to dance to.
By taking on Stayin’ Alive, Royal Republic have picked one of the most recognisable songs in popular culture. First released in 1977, the Bee Gees’ original remains an anthem of resilience, forever tied to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and the disco explosion of the late ‘70s.
Royal Republic’s version doesn’t replace the original – it detonates it. The result is a track that pays homage to the Bee Gees’ legacy while standing defiantly in the present, a survival anthem transformed into a rock’n’roll war cry. Or as the band put it: “Turn it up. Come alive. Stay there. Royal Republic style.”
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