Sons stage concert to burnish Diana's image

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

London, July 1: Princess Diana's sons stage a charity concert in her memory today which they hope will quell her critics and celebrate her humanitarian achievements.

On what would have been Diana's 46th birthday, Princes William and Harry have lined up a string of pop veterans from Rod Stewart to Duran Duran for a six-hour show being broadcast to 145 countries.

The princes have asked Elton John to reprise ''Candle in the Wind'' which he sang at Diana's funeral in 1997.

He vowed then never to play it again but Harry said ''He's helped massively just by saying yes (to the concert) and obviously a personal request from us is to do 'Candle in the Wind' again. So hopefully he'll be playing that.'' Security will inevitably be tight for the concert after two petrol-and-nail car bombs were discovered on Friday in central London that could have caused carnage in the capital's packed theatreland.

Two suspects rammed a petrol-filled four-wheel-drive vehicle into Glasgow airport yesterday in what police described as terrorist attack linked to the foiled London bomb plot.

Diana's death in a Paris car crash years 10 years ago provoked an unprecedented outpouring of grief from the normally reserved British and some commentators fear the concert could strike a mawkish note.

''There might even be a danger of the whole event descending into a cringingly sentimental affair,'' The Daily Telegraph said of preparations for the music and dance extravaganza at London's refurbished Wembley Stadium.

Prince William is sharply aware of the mixed press his mother has received over the past decade as a glamorous humanitarian who bemoaned the media for hounding her but cultivated them to burnish her image.

''After 10 years there's been a rumbling of people bringing up the bad and over time people seem to forget or have forgotten all the amazing things she did,'' William said of his mother whose causes ranged from AIDS sufferers to land mine victims.

''She's not here to defend herself when she gets criticised and so we want to do that instead and this is the best way of us getting that across to people,'' the second in line to the throne said in a BBC interview before the concert.

The Diana concert faces stiff competition in a packed pop calendar with fans still scraping the mud off after the rain-sodden Glastonbury Festival and Al Gore staging ''Live Earth'' concerts next week around the world to highlight the climate crisis.

British singers Bryan Ferry and Joss Stone along with US rappers Pharrell Williams and Kanye West are to join the line-up while composer Andrew Lloyd Webber will stage a medley of songs from his musicals and the English National Ballet will perform.

Other young royals are due to attend the concert along with William and Harry but their father, Prince Charles, who divorced Diana in 1996, is not scheduled to appear.

Reuters>

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