Kylie and Kath Jenkins will sing for Queen’s 90th birthday

Kylie and Kath Jenkins will sing for Queen’s 90th birthday

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norman lebrecht

April 08, 2016

The lineup was announced this morning.

Sorry, no room for Kiri.

They could have appeared as the Three Ks.

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Comments

  • Eric says:

    I have never heard her referred to as “Kath” before? Any particular reason for the diminution?

  • Olassus says:

    How can Ant & Dec be “hosting” on the “private grounds of Windsor Castle”? Has the property changed hands?

    • Una says:

      There is where the public may go, and there I where the Queen and her family have for their own use and privacy.

    • Eddie Mars says:

      Lunging in as usual , O’Luscious???

      The public have admission – within opening hours only, and at the discretion of the Castle Commendant – to a number of small areas… primarily from the Gatehouse to St George’s Cathedral, and the Albert Memorial Chapel – and as far as the Round Tower. This is approximately half of the total area of the castle. An admission ticket offers access to the State Rooms of the Castle.

      The lawns behind the Round Tower are private, and there is no admittance for ticket-paying visitors beyond that point. The Private Apartments make up the other half of the castle, and there is no admittance to these whatsoever – except for the Royal Family and their guests.

      The price of sandwiches remains unknown, as does their nitrate content. The Fach of the role of Queen Elizabeth in Britten’s opera Gloriana is considered to be a Dramatic Soprano.

  • CDH says:

    Is this a snapshot of HMQ’s private entertainment preferences? Does she while away her leisure hours watching Ant and Dec, Downton Abbey, Homeland, Cranford, etc.? It is clear she is not an opera and ballet aficionado, like her son and her late sister — she probably made an attempt to choose more populist things to watch, for professional reasons, as it were (I see her interest in horses, rather the other thing, is being represented, so she will get some pleasure out of the entertainment).

    But it does seem a very downmarket sort of list. At least at the Golden, she had some of rock royalty. The singers she seems called upon to endure seem less likely to be known by her centennial, though Kylie Minogue has a way of hanging on that has defied nature. I think the grandsons had a hand in the former. It seems unlikely they will get through the latter.

    The things that woman has had to put up with in order to do her duty for all of us…God Save Her.

    • Allen says:

      The entertainment appears to have been organised at relatively short notice by operatic standards. It’s probably a matter of who is available as much as anything.

      She probably can’t win in some eyes anyway. A more operatic line-up would be considered elitist, as Gove and Osborne know only too well.

      • CDH says:

        Why would it have been put together at short notice? It’s not as if they had not known this was coming!

        In the event, it seems an evening nobody with active brain cells would want to sit through, let alone the long-suffering Queen. I’m sure she would not have liked an operatic evening, as I said above — there is no sign throughout her reign hat she had any particular taste for the high arts, at least in performance, though she dutifully showed up occasionally. But it is really hard to picture her cranking up Kylie on her iPod. (Though not so hard to picture her watching Downton Abbey, or even Homeland, given she was once an acknowledged Kojak fan).

        She might have been happier with some of the military bands and a soloist or two — and the horses.

        • Allen says:

          I said short notice by operatic standards.

          It was announced last year. Few details were released.

          • Una says:

            Plus the Queen, as usual, didn’t want a fuss over something she probably felt was insignificant to getting on with her job with Philip, who is even older. Now that her birthday itself is in a few days’ time – and dare we say, she is both still alive and well – then celebrations can go ahead.

            With regards to the music, the programme has to be one that would appeal to the British public as it is being televised live. So that puts Britain’s favourite ‘opera singer’ – ha, ha – ‘Kath’ Jenkins onto the limelight again! No account for taste.

            Just hope the weather holds!

    • sdg says:

      Memory may be at fault, and the tale may well be aprocryphal, but:

      Some years ago it was suggested she might support “her” Royal Opera and Figaro was suggested. “That’s the one with the pin” she is reported to have said, “we’ve seen that.”

  • Nick says:

    The event is being televised. I doubt if the Queen really had much say in requesting more than a few of the participants. The television station will have done so with its advertising revenues very much in mind. Whatever the line-up, though, it is a celebration of an amazing woman and the way she has carried out her duties during most of these 90 years!

    • Una says:

      Couldn’t agree with you more, Nick. The Queen has been an amazing woman and with Philip beside her as a breath of fresh air with his unpolitically correct humour as he gets older!! She has such a strong religious faith, and that has kept her going in such times of trial and tribulation, and so she has done what she believes God has called her to do, and to be a servant for the country and its people. My goodness, she has served it well and better than an President could have done for us here – whether you’re a royalist or not – and given stability.

      • V.Lind says:

        Hear, hear.

        We will never look upon her likes again. I’m not anti-POW, but he does not have a fragment of the stuff of either of his parents. His sister would have carried the same flag as the parents, but she is looking like the last of the public duty first Royals.

        For all its sins, the institution has been a very good thing, and I despair of its future.

  • Elizabeth Owen says:

    Poor woman being subjected to this crap no wonder she doesn’t like theatre just think of all those Royal Variety shows she had to sit through.

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