Meet 3 Members from the Royal Wedding Gospel Choir
"People keep telling us that they were crying," Celia Osuagwu, a member of the gospel choir that performed at the royal wedding, told me just days after singing at the union of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Kingdom Choir conductor Karen Gibson echoed a similar sentiment. "I've been receiving email from around the world, Facebook messages, Instagram, Twitter," she said.
Osuagwu’s close personal friends with Kingdom Choir’s coordinator, Bim Amoako-Gyampah, who was tasked by Prince Charles “to bring them the best in the land"-and Celia is one of the best, although not an official member of Kingdom Choir. And to lead the best of the best was, well, the best: Karen Gibson. Gibson has been a respected conductor in the UK for years and has already performed for Prince Charles alongside one of her children's choirs at Buckingham Palace.
I talked to Gibson, Osuagwu, and Amoako-Gyampah about the royal performance, the song choices, and the importance of an all-black Choir performing at St. George's chapel.
What was it like to learn you would be singing at the royal wedding?
Karen Gibson: When I found out, when we got the call, I was incredulous, and my response was, "Are you kidding?" When the press had confirmed that it would be the case, I didn't quite believe it for a good few weeks. In my mind, I'd keep thinking, "Is this really going to happen? Are we really singing at the royal wedding?" Of course, I was doing the necessary preparation, but I think I didn't believe it until it actually happened.
Do you know who from the royal family requested a gospel choir performance?
Celia Osuagwu: It was from Prince Charles' office. They made the request to find a gospel choir-it was what they wanted. The person who was tasked with that was Bim Amoako-Gyampah. She coordinated the whole event. The singers at the royal wedding were a mix of Kingdom Choir members and then hand-picked members from different parts of London and the UK. So I'm one of the people that was asked to do it, to join Kingdom Choir to do it. We're like the supergroup for the royal wedding.
Hold tight my sister @Chocscee with the full screen picture, singing at the royal wedding! 🙌🎤 pic.twitter.com/HFF4HRuKb8
- DJ Whoppa (@DJWhoppa) May 19, 2018
What was it like to get the call from Prince Charles' office?
Bim Amoako-Gyampah: It was surreal, really. If you're a musician or a singer, of course you'll at some point be asked to sing at a wedding. But for someone to ask you to do something of this gravity and actually put it together and be the person to make sure that it runs the way it's meant to run and to recruit the singers and recruit the director and do all of that, it's an honor. It's an honor that they would allow me to do that for them. And that they trust me to make sure that got taken care of. Yeah I'm really honored that they choose me, they could have chosen someone else. I'm grateful that they had trust in me.
Tell me a bit about your background and how you were asked to be part of the Kingdom Choir performance for this special day.
Celia Osuagwu: I have been singing since I was about 10 in various choirs. I used to go to a Saturday music school, but I'm actually a pharmacist. I have a day job as a pharmacist, and singing has been a hobby that I've really enjoyed doing. But in the past few years, it's starting to get a little more serious. So last month, I was on tour with a band called Bastille that is quite big in the UK. I've sung with Bastille, and I've also done backup vocals for various, random people, some famous, some not so famous. But to be singing has just always been fun. In regards to this particular thing, I was asked if I was free on the 18th and 19th of May, but I wasn't told why. And a friend says to me, "Are you free?" I just had a cancellation for something so I was actually free and I had taken the day off work because I thought I had a show. She said,"Cool, leave it free." When I asked what is was for she said, don't worry about it.
I just had to trust my friend. I didn't know what it was. And even the morning of the first rehearsal, I still didn't know what it was.
Bim Amoako-Gyampah: I used to be in the Kingdom Choir, about eight or so years ago. And so I've worked with Karen before. She's excellent at what she does. And she begs to put together any group of people and get the best sound out of them. And so on this occasion, we worked together to bring together some of the best singers in this country, gospel singers in this country from all areas. So it wasn't just London based. We had people from Bristol, we had people from Manchester coming down specifically for this. We went about choosing the very best people. Some of the very best voices and people who had really just sweet hearts, and it turned out beautifully.
Did any of the other members of the choir have any idea they would be singing at the royal wedding?
Karen Gibson: I knew what was going on, but we were not allowed to tell people. I would ring people up and say, "Are you available on this date? I can't say what it's for."
Celia Osuagwu: None of us knew. And what happened was, they made a WhatsApp group. And they put everyone in the WhatsApp group, and then we still didn't know what it was. Then they said, this is the address for the first rehearsals. When we got the address for rehearsals, I put two and two together. Because our group was performing the 19th of May at the Windsor and I said, what's happening at Windsor that day, and of course, it was the royal wedding.
Why Stand by Me and This Little Light of Mine? Do you know if that was important to the bride or groom?
Karen Gibson: It was a request from the bride and groom. They were very hands on, very particular about what they wanted sung, and how they wanted it to be sung.
What it like to be one of the few people who got to perform in that room?
Karen Gibson: Surreal. Absolutely surreal. I mean, we felt, and we still do feel highly honored, highly privileged. It was dreamlike, I've got to say. So dreamlike in the chapel. I don't know if you're seen inside of it, but it's a gorgeous building. Absolutely stunning.
Then, we had the sunlight, then we had the bride stepping through the door, and sunlight, she looks up at the sun, she's in this very beautiful dress. It was just heaven.
Celia Osuagwu: I'm still processing the platitude of what we've done. It was amazing. And it was just surreal. It felt like I was watching it on TV, but actually, I was in the room. So the things that you saw on TV, like on TV, you can see where Meghan comes into the room and you can see the children that came behind her and all of that. We saw that from inside the chapel. I'm in awe. Yeah, 100%. I am. I'm just still processing all of that. You know, there's celebrities there in the room, and it was like a star studded audience and it was surreal. It was an absolute honor to be there.
Bim Amoako-Gyampah: I think all of us were excited. I was in orientation. I was just really concentrating on making sure that we gave them the very best that we could, and that we put our heart into the music. I was just really blessed to be part of it. I just really did my best to enjoy it. It wasn't really about getting nervous. It was really about enjoying that moment because you won't get that back again. And it was wonderful. When you're in a chapel of that magnitude, and it's absolutely stunning. And it's filled with some of the most famous people in the world, and possibly the most famous couple in the world, and they ask you to sing a song, I think you have to enjoy it. You're not going to get to do that again, necessarily.
Were you nervous performing for the Queen, Harry, Meghan, and all the royals?
Karen Gibson: No, no, no. Not at all. We had something to do, we worked hard for it, and we were ready, were ready to gift our music to this very special couple. We were not nervous. We knew what we had to do. We had a purpose. We worked hard for that purpose. We were excited about being there. Our place was there, and we were ready.
Celia Osuagwu: I personally wasn't nervous because it just felt comfortable. And also, you've got to remember, there's about 30 of us. And when you're standing with 30 people and you're singing together in harmony, nerves don't really come into it. It felt like home, if I'm honest. But maybe you should ask one of the soloists.
Did you have the opportunity to see or sneak a peek at the royals or the queen during your performance?
Celia Osuagwu: Well, we did get a tour of the chapel before the performance. We went to talk at first and they showed us everything. We got to sit and see where the royals were going to sit. They were all, this is where Prince Charles and where the bride's family will be sitting. So we knew where they'd be sitting and where they would be in relation to us.
You all wore beautiful muted blues, pinks, and nude colors on the day of the wedding. What was the decision behind these colors?
Celia Osuagwu: It was actually my friend Bim's creative decision to put us in those tones because she knew that it would look nice. And that it would like nice for the weather because it was spring/summer wedding. And she knew that those colors would just make everyone stand out really nicely, without clashing with potentially, the colors of what the bride was wearing and the bridal party, the children. So we didn't want to clash, but we did want to look nice. We didn't want to wear exactly the same color. It wouldn't have looked right.
Bim Amoako-Gyampah: Yeah. I chose the palate. And then I worked with a stylist called Jeanette Young. And then she added to the palate and then helped to pull the looks together.
Everyone is talking how this royal wedding was blacker than any in history - did you consider your performance to be revolutionary in that aspect?
Karen Gibson: It's revolutionary in that I don't know of any other royal family that had a Black gospel choir sign. But it's not the first time that a Black gospel choir have been presented to royalty. You had, in 1873, the Fisk Jubilee Singers being brought over, and they had an audience with Queen Victoria, I believe. So gospel music has been in the country for many, many, many years. I have also met Prince Charles in 2010, with one of my school gospel choirs. They sung for him at Buckingham Palace. But a royal wedding? Maybe that is a precedent.
Celia Osuagwu: I would have to say, I don't know, it's a tough one because I don't really know how to answer that. Because the thing is, royal weddings happen all over the world. They just don't always get shown around the world. That's all. But royal weddings happen all the time, in Africa, for example. So it's revolutionary in some respect in terms of it being screened in the United Kingdom. But actually, there's royal weddings all the time.
What do you think it means, that a black gospel choir performed in St.George’s chapel for a royal wedding?
Karen Gibson: I would really talk about, because even though I'm a Black Pentecostalist, I've grown up in the church, gospel music is my norm, and in many churches around the country, but people don't really know gospel music. They don't really know where to find it. To see it, on a world stage, I'm sure that will speak to people. It will say to them, "Oh, there's this beautiful music and I know that it's out there now." I think it's a huge platform for gospel music, which I would say has been really underground for many years in England, despite the fact that the Windrush generation has been here since the 1960s and 50s. They've been living here since 1960s, and they've now been told that they're not going to have any right to work here, or take part in the NHS, or any of the benefits of being a citizen. So that representation, I feel, would be very important for that generation as well.
What has been the reception to the performance? I'm sure it’s been crazy.
Karen Gibson: Absolutely incredible. People have been so positive. I've been receiving email from around the world, Facebook messages, Instagram, Twitter. There's been millions of hits on YouTube. On Spotify, thousands of streams. Our Instagram page following has gone up from 700 to over 30,000.
Celia Osuagwu: People keep telling us that they were crying. Like a lady said to me today that her and her husband's friends, they were all really really emotional, and she thought it was interesting because they wouldn't normally cry at singing, but they were really emotional. I've had people just say that it made them feel really really proud. A lot of people said that it just made the wedding really something special.
Bim Amoako-Gyampah: It's been phenomenal. It's been overwhelming.
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