The BBC and Buckingham Palace have unveiled a glittering group of performers from the worlds of music and dance set to perform at the Platinum Party at the Palace concert which takes place on Saturday, June 4 at Buckingham Palace - and live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and BBC Radio 2.
Queen + Adam Lambert, Alicia Keys, Hans Zimmer, Ella Eyre, Craig David, Mabel, Elbow and George Ezra will share the three-stage setup with the likes of Duran Duran, Andrea Bocelli, Mimi Webb, Sam Ryder, Jax Jones, Celeste, Nile Rodgers, Sigala and Diversity – all performing their biggest hits in a star-studded tribute to Her Majesty’s unprecedented anniversary.
Stars from the stage and screen, and the sporting world appearing at the event and on film will include Sir David Attenborough, Emma Raducanu, David Beckham, Stephen Fry, Dame Julie Andrews, The Royal Ballet, Ellie Simmonds, and a specially recorded performance from Sir Elton John. Sam Ryder, the United Kingdom’s Eurovision hero, will also perform live, fresh from his success in Italy.
The evening will pivot around global themes that have been born, or evolved, during the breadth of Her Majesty’s reign due to extraordinary British and Commonwealth contributions including Fashion, Sport, The Environment, 70 Years of Pop Music and Musicals – the latter curated by legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, featuring a special appearance by Lloyd Webber and Lin-Manuel Miranda plus performances featuring casts and special guests from The Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, Six, The Lion King and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat.
Queen + Adam Lambert will open the concert with a very special one-off production which will no doubt summon memories of Brian May’s historic appearance on the Palace roof at the Golden Jubilee Concert in 2002. Closing the 2.5-hour show will be legend Diana Ross with her first UK live performance in fifteen years.
Hosts Kirsty Young and Roman Kemp will lead live coverage of the Platinum Party at the Palace to be broadcast live across the BBC. 22,000 people will attend the event including 10,000 tickets allocated in a public ballot and over 7,500 tickets for key workers, members of the Armed Forces, volunteers, and charities.
The unique Platinum Party stage design consists of three stages, linked by walkways, which create a 360-degree experience in front of Buckingham Palace and The Queen Victoria Memorial. Linking the stages together into one overall design are 70 columns representing Her Majesty’s 70-year reign that can be illuminated to provide a full formation of lights and beams. For the first time, two of the three stages sit immediately in front of Buckingham Palace, framing the iconic home of The Queen.
Speaking for Queen + Adam Lambert, Brian May says: “Twenty years after playing The Queen’s glorious Golden Jubilee we’re very happy to be invited again. Then there was a moment when I wondered … after Buckingham Palace roof where can you go? Well … you will see!!!”
Diana Ross says: “I have had the honour of meeting The Queen many times throughout my life, including when I was with my family. Her Majesty has and continues to be such an incredible inspiration to so many across the world and I was absolutely delighted to receive an invitation to perform on such a momentous and historic occasion.”
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s Chief Content Officer, commented: “We are thrilled to be bringing the nation together for this incredible, once in a lifetime event, broadcast live across the BBC with an amazing star-studded lineup of performers to celebrate The Queen’s momentous 70 years on the throne.”
Further details and additional artists will be confirmed closer to the event - with some surprises left for the evening itself.
BBC Studios Productions are staging the event and producing the live broadcast on behalf of the BBC and Buckingham Palace.
Queen’s The Platinum Collection will be released on vinyl for the first time as a limited-edition 6LP coloured vinyl box set, on June 17 through EMI. Watch an unboxing video below.
Released for the first time on vinyl, Queen’s compilation The Platinum Collection, featuring all three of their Greatest Hits albums, shows their unrivalled track record of chart-topping, award-winning, record-breaking rock and pop classics. With four songwriters in the band – Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon - Queen created a glorious legacy of all-time anthems that still ring out across the ages. For past and future fans alike, they will rock you!
Living up to its name, The Platinum Collection was recently certified by the UK music industry organisation the BPI as having gone 8 x Platinum, representing sales of 2.4 million achieved since its June 2011 re-release as part of Queen’s 40th-anniversary celebrations.
June 17 will see the limited edition 6LP colour vinyl set released in a slipcase with brand new artwork. Each piece of vinyl will be a different colour and come in its own individually designed sleeve. The set also comes with an exclusive 24-page 12″ photo booklet.
Queen Greatest Hits, first released in 1981, is the best-selling album of all time in the UK, having sold over 6.8 million copies, with global sales in excess of 25 million. Spanning Queen’s triumphant first act, from 1974 to 1980, Greatest Hits includes some of the world’s most beloved rock standards, including the stadium-sized symphonic chart-topper "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the roof-raising "We Are The Champions", which was named the most catchy song of all time by a team of scientists in 2011. But this album also dazzles with its stylistically promiscuous range, from the crowd-rousing "We Will Rock You", the tongue in cheek "Fat Bottomed Girls", the stomp-stomp-stomp late 70’s disco-inspired "Another One Bites the Dust", to the finger-snapping jukebox retro-rock homage "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and the soaring, impassioned, gospel-fired Aretha-isms of "Somebody To Love".
Queen Greatest Hits II, originally released shortly before Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, has sold over 19 million copies worldwide. It spans 1981 to 1991, the period which followed Queen having dropped their famous no synthesizers rule elevating them to new heights of creativity. Opening up their guitar-heavy sound to embrace funk, disco and electronics resulted in rich rewards, transforming these former Seventies glam rockers into a glossy, streamlined, emphatically contemporary super-group. Rebooted and rewired, Queen produced some of their most immortal hits during this imperial Eighties phase. Built around an improvised studio jam, their infectious David Bowie collaboration "Under Pressure" became a global chart-topping smash. The retro-futurist epic "Radio Gaga" and the humorously romantic "I Want To Break Free" stand as testaments to their early mastery of synthesizers, while the muscular ripcord riffs of "Hammer To Fall" and octave-vaulting grand-piano acrobatics of "It’s a Hard Life" are vintage Queen both sonically and lyrically. Officially the tenth best-selling album of all time in the UK, Greatest Hits 2 also features the tender sentiments of "Friends Will Be Friends", the planet-sized synth-rock fanfares of "One Vision", and the heroically defiant swan song "The Show Must Go On", featuring Freddie in his last days still playing shamelessly to the gallery.
Queen Greatest Hits III, rarely available on vinyl, features their latter-day songs, the band members’ solo hits and the band’s collaborations with other artists including Elton John, Montserrat Caballé, George Michael and Wyclef Jean.
Undimmed by time or fashion, The Platinum Collection is a reminder that Queen were always colourful, always dynamic, always ablaze with passion and pride.
Coming soon, Queen - The Platinum Collection. Complete Scores Collector’s Edition.
At last... a collector's edition fit for Queen!.The new Queen Platinum Collection is a hardcover edition featuring full-band transcriptions for nearly 50 classics from the iconic band. Every instrument, every note, every lyric, and every nuance of every song is carefully transcribed. It's beautifully packaged in a protective sturdy slipcase.
Available for pre-order here.
(Photo - Brojan Hohnjec / Miracle Productions LLP)
