Why can't the BBC Proms stick to classical music?

Spectator

24-04-2025

Welcome to this year's BBC Proms, the self-styled 'World's Greatest Classical Music Festival', whose programme was revealed today. Every year I write about how even The Proms, which bills itself unambiguously as a festival of classical music, can't bring itself to be just that: a festival of classical music. And every year it gets worse, with the idea of 'inclusion' so pervasive that music which has as much to do with a classical music festival as my pet cat would have at Crufts taking over ever more evenings. This year's schedule is the final straw.
On day two, the Proms presents 'The Great American Songbook and Beyond' with Samara Joy, which is followed by 'Round Midnight' with 'hip hop artist Soweto Kinch'. That's followed a few nights later by Angeline Morrison singing folk songs from her album 'The Sorrow Songs', and then Arooj Aftab and Ibrahim Maalouf with their 'captivating, eclectic melting-pot of influences from jazz, folk, pop, blues and South Asian' and 'Middle Eastern melodies…jazz, Latin jazz, and African rhythms' respectively.
There's an evening of Soul Revolution, which will 'trace a path from spirituals through gospel to soul, revealing the role of these genres in supporting the Civil Rights movement.