The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 finals were held at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, but the Kate Middleton made a cameo from Windsor Castle. In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo, the Princess of Wales played a melody from “Stefania,” the song performed by Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra, which won last year’s edition of the famed pop contest.
In a pre-recorded video filmed in the castle’s Crimson Drawing Room, Kate wore a royal blue, one-shoulder gown by Jenny Packham and a pair of sapphire and diamond earrings that once belonged to the Queen Mother. She played a few bars of the song, arranged by Joe Price and Kojo Samuel, as a part of a larger performance by Kalush Orchestra that opened the night’s programming and honored Ukrainian traditional music and a few more musicians, including Andrew Lloyd Weber, Joss Stone, and last year’s UK competitor Sam Ryder.
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For Kate Middleton and her husband, the Prince of Wales, support for the nation and its citizens displaced by the war with neighbouring Russia has been a focus of their diplomatic work since the conflict began in February 2022. The couple has hosted politicians from the country, including First Lady Olena Zelenska, at the palace on multiple occasions, and in March 2023, William visited Poland to meet with Ukrainian refugees.
Though Kate initially learned to play the piano as a child, she returned to the instrument during 2020’s coronavirus lockdown. She made her televised piano debut during a 2021 BBC Christmas special, where she performed a duet with Scottish singer Tom Walker. Though she hosted a similar special in 2022, she didn’t play the grand piano emblazoned with the face of the late queen during the event.
On Sunday morning, the Eurovision video went onto the couple’s Instagram and Twitter accounts, alongside an array of artfully edited videos showing a few behind-the-scenes moments from the coronation. More footage from those moments went into a five-minute video the couple added to their YouTube channel, which they launched in May 2021. It’s all part of a bigger push to appeal to the younger generation of Britons after a March YouGov poll commissioned by the BBC showed that only 32% of respondents under 25 believed the country should continue to have a monarchy.