KIRI’S MAJESTIC HONOUR
One’s a monarch, the other is musical royalty. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has had a long history with the Queen and her family, including famously singing at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
But the esteem in which she’s held by the royals was particularly evident last week when the opera star received special treatment, sitting alongside Her Majesty on a car ride to church.
Kiri (75) looked chummy with the monarch as the pair were driven from Sandringham to nearby St Mary Magdalene for the Sunday morning service. Both women were wrapped up warm against the chilly winter weather, with the Queen (93) in a furry hat with a blanket over her
knees in the back of her Rolls-Royce.
Meanwhile, the Queen’s daughter Anne, Princess Royal, (69) walked from the royal residence to the church with her husband Sir Timothy Laurence (64) and another celebrity guest, racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart (80). It’s believed both Kiri and Jackie were staying at Sandringham for several days as guests of Her Majesty.
It’s the second year in a row that Kiri has been invited to spend time at the family’s Norfolk home, where the Queen and Prince Philip (98) reside over Christmas and into February. Exactly a year ago she also had the privilege of travelling to church in the royal Rolls-Royce.
She told Radio New Zealand last year the invitation had come through Anne and Tim: “I was invited to Sandringham for three days and three nights, which was really incredibly special. Her Majesty was there and the Duke of Edinburgh was there as well, and they were at the lunches and the dinners
which were really, really fun.”
Kiri stressed that she wouldn’t describe their relationship as close – “it’s not buddy-buddy or anything like that” – but said it was “very nice to get some nice invitations like that”.
The opera star obviously made an impression, hence the invitation to return this year. A royal source says being invited twice to Sandringham, among the smallest and homeliest of the royal residences, is a clear sign of approval.
“Sandringham is special to the Queen because it is where Prince Philip now spends most of his time, but it also holds a lot of history for her. It’s where both her grandfather George V and her father George VI passed away – in 1936 and
1952, respectively – and it is also where she taped her firstever televised Christmas message, in 1957.
“Because it is quite small compared to other royal homes, I think Her Majesty would only want guests there that she personally likes and has time for,” says the source. “Getting asked for a return visit would be something special.”
Kiri’s association with the royal family goes back to the 1970s when she met them while they were touring New Zealand.
“We had lunch on board the Royal Yacht Britannia,” she recalled in a 2018 interview. “I sang for them that night.”
But when she got a phone call in 1981 asking if she’d sing at Charles’ wedding to Diana, she initially thought it was a joke.
“My agent rang and said, ‘Charlie wants you to sing at his wedding,’ and I said, ‘Charlie who?’ He said, ‘Charles!’ and I said, ‘Charles who?’
“Charles Windsor,” came the reply, to which Kiri simply said, “Oh.”
Kiri, who’s been based in the UK since the mid-1960s, went on to perform for the royals many times, including singing Happy Birthday to the Queen at the opening of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and headlining the 2007 Royal Variety Performance.
Kiri was made a dame in 1982 and in 2018 was appointed a member of the elite Order of the Companions of Honour. She was presented with the award at Buckingham Palace by Charles, who three years earlier had presented her with an honorary doctorate at the Royal College of Music.
Kiri caught up with Charles and his second wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, when they were all in New Zealand last
November. Charles (71) and Camilla (72) were here on a royal visit, while Kiri was at home celebrating the renaming of the main theatre at Auckland’s Aotea Centre in her honour.
She was spotted laughing and chatting animatedly to her royal pals at a reception.
While she may be used to hobnobbing with royalty, she’s equally as happy back in New Zealand at the property she owns in Northland. On the same day she caught up with Charles and Camilla, Kiri told pupils at her old school, Auckland’s St Mary’s College: “You always come back to your roots, no matter what happens – your land pulls you back.”