King hails ‘exceptional’ Beyonce as he plays his favourite Commonwealth tracks
Like a consummate DJ, Charles introduces each song, giving his thoughts before the tracks are played.
The King has paid tribute to Beyonce describing her as “exceptional” and congratulating the singer on her first album of the year Grammy during his online radio show.
The US superstar’s biggest hit Crazy In Love was played during the King’s Music Room programme, alongside Diana Ross’s Upside Down, with Charles confessing it was “absolutely impossible” not to dance to the former Motown singer’s track when he was a younger man.
Charles became a one-off disc jockey for the online radio show after he was left “surprised and delighted” to be asked by Apple Music to showcase 17 of his favourite songs by artists like Jools Holland, Michael Bublé and Dame Kiri Takanawa to mark Commonwealth Day.
“This was an era of songs made memorable by brilliant lyrics, incredible bands and unstoppable rhythm,” said Charles.
Beyonce, who will bring her Cowboy Carter tour to London this June, performed Crazy in Love at the Prince’s Trust Fashion Rocks concert in 2003, the year the single was released.
Charles described her as: “…a performer so exceptional that I just could not resist including her music” and said she was featured to showcase an “iconic musical moment from the many events which have supported my Trust’s work for young people over all these years.”
During her Grammy speech last week Beyonce alluded to her previous misses for the prize, saying it had been “many, many years” after failing to secure the win with 2008’s I Am… Sasha Fierce, 2013’s Beyonce, 2016’s Lemonade and 2022’s Renaissance, before finally succeeding with her chart-topping country album Cowboy Carter.
Reggae star Bob Marley’s contribution to society away from music was highlighted by Charles before his song Could You Be Loved was played: “Bob Marley would have been 80 this year.
“I remember when he came to London to perform when I was much younger, and I met him at some event, that marvellous, infectious energy of course he had, but also his deep sincerity and his profound concern for his community.”
“He gave the world that voice in a way that no one who heard could ever forget.”
As Charles introduced Kylie Minogue’s song Locomotion he described it as “music for dancing” and said “again, it has that infectious energy which makes it, I find, incredibly hard to sit still”.
He introduced it with the words: “It can be easy to take a rosy view of the past, it is not so easy to take a rosy view of everything unless, of course, as this next song shows you, are in love.”
The 1964 hit My Boy Lollipop by Millie Small followed Bob Marley and Charles said: “Staying with the Caribbean, I’m always mindful how much we owe to the Windrush Generation, whose gifts have so greatly enriched our country, and what an unexpected gift was the extraordinary voice of Jamaican-born Millie Small…”
Among those on Charles’s playlist, which mostly featured Commonwealth artists, was Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing E Te Iwi E (Call to the People), Michael Buble’s Haven’t Met You Yet, Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the celebrated sitar player Ravi Shankar, playing Indian Summer, the carnival classic Hot Hot Hot by Arrow and Jools Holland & Ruby Turner with My Country Man.
The final song he played was Upside Down by Diana Ross, with Charles telling the listeners: “…when I was much younger, it was absolutely impossible not to get up and dance when it was played.
“So I wonder if I can still just manage it.”
– The King’s Music Room is on Apple Music 1 or on demand with an Apple Music subscription.
