Royal Carols: Together at Christmas aired on Christmas Eve (Friday) in the UK, on ITV. I didn’t see many people talking about the actual broadcast event, but maybe that’s because all of the energy was going towards the Duchess of Cambridge. On Friday, the Kensington Palace social media announced something no one knew about beforehand: Kate was actually taking part in one of the musical performances during the program. Kate took piano lessons as a child, and she apparently kept up with it, enough that she was able to play along to a song written and performed by Tom Walker. Here’s the performance:
I saw people complaining about this, that or the other, so let me just say what I think about this: it’s fine? I would even consider it “good” and “sort of cool.” I’m saying that as someone who is not musically gifted at all – I’ve always admired people who can play the piano or even just read sheet music. Was it the most complicated song for an amateur pianist? No, but Kate did better than I would have done and better than most of us would have done.
According to the official reporting – meaning, Kensington Palace briefing the Rota and People Magazine – Kate came up with the idea of performing alongside Walker, because she heard her perform a song about addiction in October at an event for the Forward Trust. She liked his song “For Those Who Can’t Be Here” because of the pertinence in the time of the pandemic, and she suggested that they perform together at her carol special. According to sources, Kate has taken “great comfort” in playing music throughout the pandemic and a royal source told People: “Music was very important to the Duchess during the lockdowns. She also recognizes the powerful way in which music brings people together — especially during difficult times. For these reasons, she was keen to be part of Tom’s performance in this way.” KEEN!
The one sort of odd thing about this is that Kate didn’t perform with Tom Walker at the actual carol service on December 8. They did this one day earlier, on December 7th, and they did a few takes on it. Which means Kate got all dressed up in that red coat and sapphire earrings and her doll wiglet TWICE on consecutive days. Which begs the question…why not just wear something different for the performance? I have other questions too, like why isn’t Kate involved with any music charities? If she cares about music and music is so important to her, hello, a music therapy charity? Anything???
Also: she could have been putting out charity singles this whole time!! They should release this version of the song as a single and raise money for charity. These are free ideas, Jason.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Instar and Alex Bramall/PA Images/INSTARimages.com.
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