Dame Judi Dench and the Scottish singer Sharleen Spiteri delighted guests at an Aberdeenshire hotel with an impromptu piano duet just before the bells on Hogmanay.
A video shared on Twitter showed the pair singing a rendition of Abba’s Waterloo at the Fife Arms in Braemar.
Spiteri, a singer with the band Texas, sang the chorus while Dench played the piano with backing vocals.
Spiteri praised Dench’s keyboard dexterity, exclaiming “What a pianist!” at the end of the performance.
Ewan Venters, chief executive of Artfarm which owns the Fife Arms, posted the video online and it was soon amassing thousands of views. He told BBC Scotland the crowd’s reaction to the performance was “joyful”.
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“Judi Dench and Sharleen Spiteri were staying at the hotel and we had an impromptu moment at the piano,” he said. “It was a happy evening with lots of guests and locals clapping.”
He said the pair burst into song just before the midnight fireworks. “It was a classic Scottish Hogmanay party at the Fife Arms,” he said. “The hotel was fully sold out, with four-course dinner and a ceilidh with lots of reeling.”
The Fife Arms is part of the Artfarm hospitality portfolio, which also includes the Audley Public House and Mount Street Restaurant and Rooms in Mayfair, Roth Bar & Grill in Somerset and Manuela in Los Angeles.
Venters, a former chief executive of Fortnum & Mason, added the Groucho Club in London to the portfolio in August. The private members’ club, patronised by the arts and media crowd, changed hands in an estimated £40 million deal.
The vendor was Alcuin Capital Partners, a private equity firm that co-owns the Caffè Nero coffee shop chain.
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Artfarm is said to be considering international expansion of the Groucho concept.
