The “Concert for Diana”, broadcast around the world, was a great success. According to the Concert website, more than 60,000 people joined Prince William and Prince Harry at Wembley Stadium on 1st July 2007 to celebrate the life of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales. Around 15 million people from across the UK watched Concert for Diana at home, and it was broadcast to over 500 million homes in 140 countries. At the end of the concert, the website reports, “Prince William and Prince Harry said a huge thank you to everyone involved in making the evening such a success”.
Prince William said: “ For us, this has been the most perfect way of remembering her. And this is how she would want to be remembered.”
A limited number of programmes will shortly be available through the website. A DVD of the entire concert is currently under production and will be released later in the year.
According to a ratings expert Glenn Dyer, the Australian extract broadcast on 2 July, 2007, kept the embattled Nine network “in the game”, with 1.328 million watching across Australia. Had the Nine network not broadcast the Concert, it is likely that it would have lagged well behind Seven, which dominated the ratings through the night from 6PM, particularly with the high rating series, “ Border Security” at 730PM. While Seven led marginally between 830PM and 930PM with “Desperate Housewives," the Concert for Diana led the ratings after that.
Sir Elton John opened the event, held on what would have been the 46th birthday of Diana, Princess of Wales, with a performance of Your Song. He then introduced Prince William and Prince Harry who received a standing ovation.
Prince William said: "This event is about all that our mother loved in life – her music, her dancing, her charities and her family and friends. We just want you to have an awesome time and enjoy the line-up."
Prince Harry added: "It’s great to see so many of you here supporting this very special show. When William and I first had the idea we forgot we would end up standing here desperately trying to think of something funny to say.”
Prince William interjected:We’ll leave that to the funny people – and Ricky Gervais," joked William.
Prince Harry delivered a message to his Household Cavalry squadron serving in Iraq, saying:"I would also like to take this opportunity to say hi to all the guys in A Squadron of the Household Cavalry, who are serving out in Iraq at the moment.I wish I was there with you. I’m sorry I can’t be. But to all of those on operations at the moment, we’d both like to say – stay safe."
Prince William then told the audience: "We just want you to have an awesome time," before adding: "We have the greatest pleasure in introducing one of mother’s favourite bands. It’s Duran Duran."
The Princes communicated superbly with the crowd, and are clearly very popular. This probably explains the vitriolic reaction of the more embittered republicans to the “story” that Prince William wanted to become Governor-General of Australia . The republicans are clearly very afraid.