The Royal Family
Who is performing at King Charles’ coronation concert?
The final set of performers for the big day was announced Friday.
After months of deliberating, the final list of performers for King Charles’ coronation concert has been officially announced. The event taking place on Sunday, May 7, now has several performers in place despite the growing list of artists who have declined the big invite.
On Friday, BBC announced the official lineup for the event which will take place one day after King Charles, 74, and Queen Camilla, 75 are crowned the United Kingdom’s new sovereigns following Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022.
Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, and Andrea Bocelli are among the big names who will be performing. British pop group ‘Take That’ along with Sir Bryn Terfel, Freya Ridings, and Alexis Ffrench will also perform.
Celebrating a new chapter
“The concert will celebrate a new chapter in the nation’s history, with themes of love, respect, and optimism, celebrating the four nations, their communities, and the Commonwealth,” the BBC said of the coronation celebration in a statement.
Perry and Richie have known the King for years, and have previously served as ambassadors for his charities. The ‘Roar’ singer has been an ambassador of the British Asian Trust since 2020, which was co-founded by King Charles to tackle poverty in South Asia.
“I am excited to be performing at the Coronation Concert, and helping to shine a further light on the British Asian Trust’s Children’s Protection Fund, whose work includes on-ground initiatives to fundraising, with the aim to find solutions to child trafficking,” Perry said in a statement.
On the other hand, Richie was appointed as the first global ambassador and first chairman of the Global Ambassador Group for the Prince’s Trust in 2019. Which, King Charles founded in 1976 to benefit disadvantaged youth.
“To share the stage with the other performers at The Coronation Concert is a once-in-a-lifetime event and it will be an honor and a celebration,” the ‘All Night Long’ singer said in a statement of his own.
Who turned down the invite?
According to Rolling Stone, Adele, Elton John, Robbie Williams, and the Spice Girls were among the performers who turned down the invitation to put on a show for the newly crowned couple.
Experts explain that the artist’s decision to decline the invite comes from the fear of being associated with the scandal-scarred monarchy.
“The royal family has faced a number of PR disasters in recent times, and anyone performing at the show would have to consider whether there would be a backlash from appearing amongst their fans,” Simon Jones, a publicist for Little Mix, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson, told Rolling Stone.