Singing for the King would tarnish pop stars’ crowns

Pop stars including Ed Sheeran and Elton John can’t afford to disappoint fans by changing tour plans to play one song at coronation concert.

ANALYSIS

Adele didn’t snub King Charles III; she just has better options for a Sunday evening in May.

There was absolutely zero chance Ed Sheeran would cancel a concert in Texas for ticket-buying fans and shelve the release of his new record Subtract to play one song at Windsor Castle for 10,000 monarchists who got in for free.

Sir Elton John may be a “friend” of the royal family but there is no way the legendary rocker was going to reschedule Farewell Yellow Brick Road concerts in Berlin which had been on hold since they were originally postponed in 2021 because of the pandemic.

He has also just been announced as a headliner for the Glastonbury festival in June and has a jam-packed schedule of European and UK shows before and after the coronation gig.

Elton John kicks off three concerts in Berlin the day after the coronation concert. Picture: Markus Ravik

And did anyone really think that putting a crown on the head of a King who has already been in the gig for the past nine months was going to get the five Spice Girls back together? Speculate all you want, but there’s no way Victoria Beckham is singing live on stage for the first time since the London Olympics closing ceremony unless she is getting paid a gazillion dollars and has at least six weeks to rehearse.

Robbie Williams is also not going to reunite with Take That, again, at the behest of the Royal family and the BBC. In case you missed it, the cheeky chappy never misses an opportunity for a shameless sledge at the expense of his former boy band mates.

The struggle to get a decent line-up of pop stars to perform at the Windsor Castle concert to “celebrate” the coronation of King Charles is real.

Adele may be top of the coronation concert wishlist but probably has other plans. Picture: AFP.

But it has more to do with plans long in the making – and no budget to pay artists or their production crew – than it does with the pop culture irrelevance of the British Royal family.

World tours take at least 18 months to plan. The fallout from cancelling a show so you can perform a song for a BBC television concert could last a lifetime.

The Spice Girls may be a Royals friendly pop act but there’s not enough money or time to get them back on stage for the King. Picture: AFP.

The insurance premiums would blow out for any stadium or arena-sized superstar who cancelled their own concert to play the Coronation gig. And the goodwill of fans would be sorely tested, with an inevitable social media pile-on for any singer who chose King over crowd karaoke.

The duty of the pop star is to their loyal fans. They are the ones who stream the new song and buy the concert ticket and T-shirt which keep every artist from Harry Styles to Sir Paul McCartney in private jets and Malibu mansions.

There is no kudos – or a Las Vegas-sized pay cheque – in playing yet another Royals-related pop concert less than a year after the last one in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.