Take That, Lionel Richie and Katy Perry will be among the artists performing at King Charles’s coronation concert, it has been announced, along with the opera singers Andrea Bocelli and Sir Bryn Terfel.
The singer songwriter Freya Ridings and classical-soul composer and producer Alexis Ffrench will also grace the stage in the grounds of Windsor Castle on Sunday 7 May, the BBC has confirmed.
They are part of a lineup performing at the event in front of 20,000 members of the public and invited guests at the concert, which will also be broadcast on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds.
Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen from Take That said in a statement: “This will be our first live show since the Odyssey Tour, four years ago in 2019, and what a stage to come back on! A huge live band and orchestra, a choir, military drummers, the backdrop of Windsor Castle and the celebration of a new king. We can’t wait.”
Richie, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, said: “To share the stage with the other performers at the coronation concert is a once-in-a-lifetime event and it will be an honour and a celebration.”
Perry, an ambassador for the British Asian Trust, founded by the king, said she was excited to be performing 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”.
Bocelli and Terfel will perform a duet at the concert, while Ridings will perform a duet with Ffrench. The artists will be backed by world-class musicians including a 70-piece orchestra and house band comprising the Massed Bands of the Household Division and the Countess of Wessex’s String Orchestra.
The show will include an exclusive appearance from the Coronation Choir, a diverse group chosen from community choirs and amateur singers from across the UK.
The centrepiece of the concert, Lighting up the Nation, will involve iconic locations across the UK being lit up using projections, lasers, drone displays and illuminations.
Details were announced as a YouGov poll revealed that a majority of Britons were not interested in the coronation. In the survey of more than 3,000 adults conducted this month, 35% said they “did not care very much” about the event, and 29% said they did not care at all, while 24% of people said they cared a fair amount and only 9% said they cared a great deal. But 46% said they were likely to watch the coronation or take part in related celebrations.
