Someone observed on a podcast a couple of weeks ago that the Platinum Jubilee of a monarch isn’t a ‘once in a lifetime event’, or even a once in a century event...

For the UK, this is the first ever, and maybe the last for at least another 200 years. Essentially, to be a Monarch for 75 years, you have to have become Monarch in your early 20s and live in an era where healthcare means a long life is possible.

So here’s our playlist for the Platinum Jubilee...

There’s been a Master of the Queen’s Music since 1626, and Judith Weir is the first woman to hold the job. An anthem for a royal occasion is in the ‘job description’ and we like the idea that a woman was the first person to write an anthem to mark another woman’s Platinum Jubilee. Here it is, performed at the Service of Thanksgiving:

Now, Judith Weir also wrote a tiny piano piece ‘For Judith, From Judith’, one of a set of ‘Variations for Judith’, each written by a former Artistic Director of Spitalfields Festival. And the Judith they were written for is … our very own Becky Pugh’s mum!

Back to our Jubilee and this is what we thought to be the stand out performance of the performance at the Palace – Alicia Keys:

And a quick bonus track this month?

As a tribute to the Queen, a brand new 'Song for the Commonwealth' has been commissioned to be sung by choirs in all 54 Commonwealth countries at the same time as the lighting of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacons on June 2nd 2022. Many different versions of the song have been recorded and uploaded here, but here is the YYM office favourite: