There's about to be a new Prince on the pop scene. Prince Harry is set to make his recording duet after collaborating with Gary Barlow. But Prince Charles' son isn't singing, or even playing guitar – he's banging the tambourine.
Harry's efforts will appear on Sing, the song Gary co-wrote with Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber in honour of the Diamond Jubilee. He takes his place with the Commonwealth Band – which is made up of 210 musicians from across the Commonwealth, making them among the most musicians ever to record a UK single. The song appears on a Jubilee album by Gary Barlow & The Commonwealth Band, which will be released on Monday May 28.
The Take That star has revealed that Prince Charles was the mastermind behind the single. At first Gary envisaged making the track UK-based, but the heir told him the Queen would prefer it if he included talents from across the Commonwealth.
"He was the first guy I saw and his bit was actually key," the 41-year-old star told Graham Norton in an interview due to appear on British TV on Friday night. "I had a list of questions I wanted to ask him - what does the Queen like, what does she listen to? And he came into the room with six CDs. We were like 'Okay, what's this?'."
"He said 'Well, I've brought some of my music collection because you need to understand that because we travel so much, we get to hear so much music - it's not what you'd think'.
"So I was shocked. I was like 'Have you ever even talked about music on camera before?' and he said 'No-one's ever asked me about music'."
"It was a really eclectic bunch, from Cole Porter to people you've never heard of - from Africa, folk bands, mento bands from Jamaica, and I was intrigued by it 'cos it was music from the Commonwealth.
"He said 'If you really want the Queen to like this, find people; go and travel and find people'." Gary then had to go back to the BBC, who were making a documentary about his musical project, to tell them he needed a bigger budget to cover his travel costs. His search for artists took him to Australia, Kenya, Jamaica and the Solomon Islands.