King Charles paid tribute to the late Tina Turner at Buckingham Palace. The royal, 74, had the Band of the Welsh guards play one of Tina’s biggest hits ever — 1989’s “The Best” — just days after her death at the age of 85. The performance took place during the changing of the guard ceremony on Friday, May 26. The band was also joined by the First Battalion Welsh Guards Corps of Drums per video posted on social media.
Simply the best! ❤️
At Buckingham Palace, the British Army’s @WelshGuardsBand played a special tribute to 🇺🇸 music icon Tina Turner during the #ChangingOfTheGuard 💂♂️
— British Embassy Washington (@UKinUSA) May 26, 2023
King Charles previously met the singer when she performed in London at his Prince’s Trust All-Star Rock Concert at Wembley Stadium back in 1986 during his marriage to late ex-wife Princess Diana. In a photo snapped backstage, a smiling Charles was seen shaking hands with Tina, who hails from Brownsville, Tennessee. At the time, the GRAMMY winner would have been fresh off her smash hit “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” which was on her 1984 album Private Dancer.
Outside of being a massive chart topper, the song is also one of the used tracks in marketing and advertising ever. “Simply the best/better than all the rest/better than anyone,” Tina belts out on the catchy rock track — one that was also belovedPrincess Diana. The former couple’s eldest son Prince William, 40, has previously shared that the tune reminded him of his mother as she used to play it in her car when he and brother Prince Harry, 38, were kids.
“One of the songs I massively remember and has stuck with me all this time, and I still, to this day, still quite enjoy secretly, is Tina Turner’s ‘The Best’ because sitting in the backseat [going to school], singing away, it felt like a real family moment,” he said on Apple Fitness+’s Time to Walk back in Dec, 2021. “And my mother, she’d be driving along, singing at the top of her voice,” he shared.
It turns out the love for the song went beyond just their own family, and even got some of the staff involved! “We’d even get the policeman [security] in the car: he’d occasionally be singing along as well. We’d be singing and listening to the music right the way up to the gates at school where they dropped you off,” the Prince of Wales also said.