Latest news with #Highlife
Khaleej Times
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
Toe-tapping King Charles reveals his favourite songs
Kylie Minogue's "The Loco-Motion", Ghanaian Highlife music and Diana Ross's "Upside Down" are the sounds guaranteed to get King Charles III on the dance floor, the UK monarch revealed Monday. The king has joined forces with Apple to launch "The King's Music Room", a radio show in which he shares his favourite songs from around the Commonwealth, and beyond. They reveal a surprising appreciation of disco, reggae and Afrobeats, and the songs which get the royal toes tapping. "The Loco-Motion", by Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue "has that infectious energy which makes it, I find, incredibly hard to sit still," Charles said as he introduced the song from Buckingham Palace, photographed behind a desk boasting an "On Air" sign. He also explained how he discovered Highlife music "and the urge to dance to that pulsating rhythm" when he first visited Ghana in the 1970s. "On my most recent visit to Ghana in 2018 I found myself dancing along to the next track, which is by Daddy Lumba -- who is regarded by some as the greatest musician Ghana has ever produced," he added, before playing "Mpempem Do Me". Although not from one of the Commonwealth nations, US singer Diana Ross' "Upside Down" is also "one of my particular favourites," said the king. "When I was much younger it was absolutely impossible not to get up and dance when it was played. I wonder if I can still just manage it," he joked. The king said that the songs evoked "many different styles and many different cultures" but that "all of them, like the family of Commonwealth nations, in their many different ways share the same love of life, in all its richness and diversity". The show was recorded to mark Commonwealth Day, which is being celebrated on Monday. The Commonwealth is a bloc of 56 nations, most of which are British ex-colonies. - 'Hot Hot Hot' - Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley also makes the playlist, with his classic hit "Could You Be Loved". "I will tell you about a time when I met the great man himself. I remember when he came to London to perform when I was much younger and I met him at some event," recalled Charles. The 76-year-old monarch remembered Marley's "marvellous, infectious energy... but also his deep sincerity and his profound concern for his community. "I always recall his words 'the people have a voice inside them'; he gave the world that voice in a way that no-one who heard could ever forget," he said. Also from the Caribbean, Charles selected Millie Small's worldwide 1964 hit "My Boy Lollipop" and Montserratian musician Arrow's "Hot Hot Hot". "When I last visited the island, it certainly was," joked the king. On a more nostalgic note, the playlist also contains "The Very Thought of You" by 1930s crooner Al Bowlly. "For me there is something... irresistible about music from the 1920s and 1930s that reminds me of my much-loved grandmother. She used to play these sorts of music a lot, and also never fails to lift my spirits." Moving back to the present day, Charles confessed that there was a "performer so exceptional that I just could not resist including her music". "The incomparable Beyonce," said the king as he introduced the US pop star's song "Crazy in Love". Other songs to make the list include "La Vie En Rose" as sung by Grace Jones, "Love Me Again" by popular UK artist Raye and "KANTE" by Nigerian artist Davido. "It also features lyrics in pidgin, which I love in all its forms," said Charles. Miriam Makeba's "The Click Song", "My Country Man" by Jools Holland and Ruby Turner, Anoushka Shankar's "Indian Summer", Siti Nurhaliza's "Anta Permana", Kiri Te Kanawa's "E Te Iwi E" and Michael Buble's "Haven't Met You Yet" completed the list.
Telegraph
10-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
King reveals his music playlist that ‘never fails to lift my spirits'
The King has revealed he is a fan of Beyoncé as he unveiled the playlist that gets him on the dance floor. The monarch will tell the world he finds it 'absolutely impossible not to get up and dance' to Diana Ross's Upside Down while Kylie Minogue's The Loco-Motion gets him in the groove. Songs from the 1920s and 1930s that his late grandmother, the Queen Mother, used to play 'never fails to lift my spirits', he will say, and discovering Highlife while travelling in Ghana gave him the 'urge to dance to that pulsating rhythm'. The mix of music, which is presented by the King himself in a programme called The King's Music Room, will be available to hear in full on Apple Music in a special episode to mark Commonwealth Day on Monday. Some of the artists are already known to be favourites of the King, including Bob Marley and Grace Jones, while others may surprise some. He has included Beyoncé, despite the fact that the US is not in the Commonwealth, in honour of her 2003 performance for his Prince's Trust. 'Here is one of the Trust's most faithful supporters, the incomparable Beyoncé, with the song Crazy In Love,' he says. 'And incidentally, I would like to congratulate her for winning her first 'album of the year' Grammy.' He met the singer at a reception in 2003, where he is reported to have told her that both his sons had her albums. More recently, Beyoncé has been a vocal supporter of the Duchess of Sussex, including a portrait of her in her Brit Awards acceptance speech in 2019 and meeting at the premiere of The Lion King in London. During Harry & Meghan, the Sussexes's Netflix documentary, the Duchess is seen receiving a supportive text message from the singer. The King's playlist also names Canadian singer Michael Bublé, who recently appeared at Prince Harry's Invictus Games in Vancouver. The King chose Haven't Met You Yet as one of his 16 songs.
