Alex Bramall
Surprise! Princess Kate kicked off this weekend’s Eurovision Song Contest with a special performance.
“A #Eurovision surprise ,” a post on the 41-year-old Princess of Wales’ Instagram account read on Saturday, May 13. “A pleasure to join @kalush.official in a special performance of last year’s winning @eurovision entry.”
In the video clip, Kate stunned in a one-shoulder blue gown while sitting at the piano inside a British castle. The duchess went on to tickle the ivories for a new arrangement of Kalush’s winning “Stefania” number from last year’s competition.
The Ukranian rap group — comprised of Oleh Psiuk, Ihor Didenchuk and MC KylymMen — competed in the musical contest in May 2022, which they ultimately won.
Alex Bramall
To kick off this weekend’s global competition, Kalush joined forces with the Duchess of Cornwall, who held her own during the song.
“Well this is incredible ️,” TV presenter Holly Willoughby gushed via Instagram comment, while singer Shirlie Kemp noted that it was “wonderful.”
Kate — who shares three children with her husband, Prince William — previously debuted her piano skills during the Royal Carols: Together at Christmas concert in December 2021. The broadcast, which was streamed on the BBC, saw the Duchess of Cambridge team up with musician Tom Walker to perform his song “For Those Who Can’t Be Here.”
Kate first learned piano as a child alongside younger siblings Pippa Middleton and James Middleton.
“Kate came for lessons when she was about 10 or 11, until she was 13, about 1993 to 1995,” her former instructor, Daniel Nicholls, recalled to the U.K.’s Evening Standard in April 2012. “She was absolutely lovely, a really delightful person to teach the piano.”
He added at the time: “They were just absolutely lovely people, normal piano pupils. … I don’t think anyone would say she was going to be a concert pianist, but she was good at it, she always did everything she was told.”
Kate’s unexpected Eurovision cameo comes less than one week after she celebrated father-in-law King Charles III’s official coronation. The princess and the Prince of Wales, 40, participated in the crowning ceremony’s procession on May 6. They were accompanied by all three of their children: Prince George, 9, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5. Charlotte and Louis sat beside their parents in their Westminster Abbey pew while George, who is second in line to the throne, was tasked with carrying the train of 74-year-old king’s robe as one of his four Pages of Honor.
