Latest news with #TheKingdomChoir
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Wedding Singers Serenade King Charles as New Details Emerge on Family Rift
King Charles was treated to a rare performance by the very same group that sang at Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's 2018 royal wedding. While visiting London's first SXSW festival on Thursday, June 5, the monarch was serenaded by The Kingdom Choir, Metro reported. The group performed from the West End of St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle when Harry and Meghan tied the knot seven years ago. The King was also greeted by The Kingdom Choir singer Karen Gibson, and the two were seen shaking hands at the festival while huddled under umbrellas. The moment comes amid fresh reports of family tensions. Harry and Meghan reportedly considered changing their children's surname to Spencer after a delay in receiving their children's passports. According to The Guardian, Harry consulted his uncle Charles Spencer amid claims officials 'dragged their feet' because the applications included HRH titles for Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4 — titles a source said King Charles opposed. PEOPLE confirms the conversation took place but denies reports that Spencer advised against the change. Buckingham Palace has strongly denied any role in the delay. Despite Harry's public call for reconciliation, the monarch has yet to make a personal move toward reconciliation. Trust remains the biggest barrier to a reunion; insiders say neither King Charles nor Prince William are ready to bridge the divide. 'The underlying issue is trust,' royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. 'The King and William don't trust Harry and Meghan with any kind of confidential conversation.' Gibson and The Kingdom Choir are scheduled to perform at SXSW in Shoreditch Church the evening of June 5, according to the official SXSW festival website, which notes that the group has previously sung with legends like Barbra Streisand and performed at The Coronation Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. When the group performed at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding, they sung a gospel performance of 'Stand by Me.' The group's performance came before the Archbishop of Canterbury led Harry and Meghan's vows, and followed an address from Bishop Michael Bruce Curry. After Harry and Meghan said their vows and walked out of the church together, Gibson and her choir performed "This Little Light of Mine." The couple reflected on the moment during a December 2020 holiday special episode of their Archewell Audio podcast. While signing off the episode with "This Little Light of Mine," Harry told listeners the song "means so much to us," adding, "Not a toast per se, but a song – which is about shining a light." Meghan continued, " 'This Little Light of Mine'' played at the very end of our wedding while we were walking down the steps of the church. It was the music that we wanted playing when we started our lives together. Because as we all know, 'darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that…' " Harry said the song's message is one he and Meghan "hold so dearly," explaining, "It's about using the power we each have within us to make this world a better place." Can't get enough of PEOPLE's Royals coverage? to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more! Less than a year after The Kingdom Choir performed at their wedding, Harry and Meghan saw the group again during a visit to Australia. The group performed at the closing ceremony for Harry's Paralympic-style Invictus Games in Sydney in October 2018. "We love what the Games stand for and are privileged to be able to honor the men and women competing," Gibson said in a statement at the time. Read the original article on People
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
King Charles meets The OC star Ben McKenzie at cultural festival in east London (and the actor can't resist plugging his new book!)
King Charles braved the rain in east London as he visited a creative cultural festival on Thursday, where he met Hollywood actor Ben McKenzie. The royal, 76, travelled to Old Spitalfields Market, for the city's first ever SXSW festival where businesses and individuals involved in music, technology, screen and culture come together. Charles attempted to keep himself dry in the typical British wet weather by holding up a large brolly as he strolled through the streets of Shoreditch. As he arrived, the monarch beamed as he met with Karen Gibson of The Kingdom Choir - the same group who sang at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex 's wedding in 2018. The event originated in Texas but has evolved into a broader festival encompassing some of the key figures in the creative arts and technology industries. The king looked typically stylish and dapper as he stepped out in a navy pinstripe suit paired with a crisp white shirt, a blue tie and highly polished black shoes. Charles greeted and shook hands with American actor Ben McKenzie, who handed the king his book, Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud. The OC star - who was sporting a beige suit with a light blue shirt - and Charles beamed as they chatted to each other inside the venue. The king appeared to be in high spirits as he made his way around the SXSW festival, which thousands of people have visited over the past week. Charles took a look at an immersive art installation, centred around sustainability, a subject the king has been passionate about since his early twenties. He first spoke about the dangerous effects of plastic pollution on the environment when he was 21 years old in 1970. In 2023, he famously said that the 'world does not belong to us' at Cop28 in Dubai, adding that his grandchildren, Prince Louis, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Princess Lilibet and Prince Archie would be living with the effects of our warming planet. The exhibit was made by a London artist named Damien Roach who called the design Grounding and it uses AI to depict landscape images and show the world's evolution. The star-studded event is due to have appearances from Idris Elba, Katherine Ryan, Erykah Badu, Alice Glass, and Sophie Turner over the week. The king looked typically stylish and dapper as he stepped out in a navy pinstripe suit paired with a crisp white shirt, a blue tie and highly polished black shoes Charles greeted small stall holders as he looked around an antiques stand selling old watches and an ice cream cart. This comes as the monarch was seen smiling and waving at royal fans as he made his way to church in Sandringham on Sunday. Charles was being driven to St Mary Magdalene Church for the Sunday morning service when he made the warm gesture. Pictured in the backseat of a blue vehicle, Charles, who is often accompanied at church by Queen Camilla, 77, appeared to be attending the service alone. The King looked typically smart in a suit and tie as he waved and beamed at those gathered nearby. The royal couple last week visited Ottawa, Canada, where Charles, who was diagnosed with cancer in February of last year, addressed the country's parliament. In the speech, delivered from a throne made of wood from a Windsor oak, the King declared the nation 'strong and free'. Charles, who was introduced to Parliament as The King of Canada, spoke of his 'deep pride and pleasure' at witnessing 'Canadians coming together in a renewed sense of national pride, unity, and hope'. Charles's appearance this morning comes after The Mail on Sunday reported that Prince Harry, 40, sought advice from Princess Diana's brother about changing his family name to Spencer. Sources said the Duke of Sussex actively explored ways to assume his mother's surname – a move that would have involved ditching Mountbatten-Windsor, used by his children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. It is understood he discussed the issue with Earl Spencer – whose family seat is Althorp in Northamptonshire – during a rare visit to Britain, but was told that the legal hurdles were insurmountable. 'They had a very amicable conversation and Spencer advised him against taking such a step,' said a friend of Harry. Nevertheless, the fact that he consulted the Earl over the issue – a proposal that would dismay his brother and father – is a vivid expression of the toxic rift with his family. Mountbatten-Windsor is the surname available to descendants of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. It combines the Royal Family's name of Windsor and the Duke of Edinburgh's adopted surname. On their birth certificates, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's children are Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. Royal author Tom Bower has claimed that 'Meghan decided her real object in life was to be Diana'. If the name change had succeeded, Meghan's daughter, who is believed to have met the King only once, would have become Lilibet Diana Spencer, a more fulsome tribute to Harry's late mother. The move would be particularly hurtful to King Charles, who cherishes the Mountbatten name just as his father did.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘My son was cut out of BBC's Harry and Meghan wedding highlights because he is black'
A cellist who performed at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's wedding was left out of the BBC's highlights package because he was black, his mother has claimed. Sheku Kanneh-Mason was chosen to perform at the 2018 ceremony, held at St George's Chapel, Windsor. His mother, Kadiatu, said she was dismayed to see that he was cut from the BBC highlights coverage, and was not featured in newspapers the next day. She suggested that the media did not know how to deal with a black cellist, as classical music was normally the preserve of white musicians. Speaking at the Hay Festival, in Wales, Mrs Kanneh-Mason said: 'When Sheku played at the royal wedding, that night he was not in any of the BBC highlights. So there was the choir, there was the preacher but he was left out as though he hadn't been there. 'The next morning, we looked through all the papers. He was not there. So they decided that he was going to be absent. And we thought, what's going on here? 'I think what it was: the gospel choir was doing what it was supposed to do. The preacher was doing what he was supposed to do. But a black cellist? A black cellist cancels itself out … he's not doing what he's supposed to be doing, he's not doing a black thing. That's really interesting, unpacking what the media thinks we're supposed to do.' Sheku, the first black winner of the BBC Young Musician competition, was chosen to perform at the wedding after the Duke saw him play at a charity event. He played three pieces of music at the ceremony. The wedding also featured gospel singers The Kingdom Choir, who performed Stand By Me, and American preacher Rt Rev Michael Curry, who was the first black presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. His sermon, which centred on the redemptive power of love, was well-received and drew significant attention. The London-based choir, which features 30 singers and was formed in 1994, found fame after the wedding. They were regularly asked to perform and signed a record deal with Sony Music UK. Mrs Kanneh-Mason has written a book, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, about Sheku and his six musically gifted siblings, exploring 'issues of cultural, racial and national identity'. She said of Sheku entering the BBC Young Musician competition: 'I panicked because he had a massive afro at that point and I thought, 'If he goes on the stage with that… the judges are not going to believe he's a classical musician. Should we make him a bit more formal?' 'In the end, he went on as himself but we had to think about that: what the presentation was, what the image was. It's one of those things going on all the time.' Mrs Kanneh-Mason said that her daughter, Konya, a pianist, was racially abused by an audience member while a student at the Royal Academy of Music. She said a man came up to her daughter and said 'I think you played beautifully – I don't know, because I was looking at your body all the time. 'Then he said, 'You shouldn't be here, because you people are taking all the jobs from the white musicians who should be here'. And she looked around and thought, 'I am the only black musician, the only black person in this room, so whose job am I taking?'' Asked about her children suffering 'micro-aggressions', Mrs Kanneh-Mason said: 'They're called micro-aggressions but actually they're maxi-aggressions. They happen all the time. And having to navigate that on a daily basis is very difficult.' A BBC spokesman said: 'BBC News reported widely on Sheku Kanneh-Mason's role in the 2018 royal wedding including news that he was selected to play, multiple stories of how the day unfolded and on the impact of his performance.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
