Don’t play Rule Britannia at Last Night of the Proms, Sussexes’ wedding cellist pleads

THE cellist who performed at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex has said Rule Britannia should be axed from the Last Night of the Proms.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, who became famous at 19 after performing at the Royal event, said some “don’t realise how uncomfortable a song like that can make a lot of people feel”.

His comments are likely to reignite the long-running debate over the singing of the patriotic anthem, which critics say has uncomfortable associations with slavery and Britain’s colonial past. In 2020 the BBC provoked an outcry when it revealed a plan to perform the song without lyrics, a decision that was reversed after Tim Davie took over as the corporation’s Director General.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, the cellist said: “I don’t think it should be included and I didn’t stay for that. I think, maybe, some people don’t realise how uncomfortable a song like that can make a lot of people feel, even if it makes them feel good. I think that’s somehow a big misunderstanding about it.”

He has previously suggested that the Last Night instead focus on folk tunes, although he conceded it would be “probably not as popular”.

Mr Kanneh-Mason performed at last year’s Last Night alongside conductor Marin Alsop, who made history in 2013 as the first woman to lead the occasion.

He also spoke about his experience as a young black classical music artist and said there are occasions he has not been “taken seriously”.

“Very often, in the spaces that I was in within classical music, myself and my family were very often the only black people in those places,” he said. “Most of the time it was fine in the sense I felt comfortable and all good but there was certainly occasions where my being black meant that I wasn’t necessarily taken seriously in some situations.”