Click here to listen to a taster of the Jubilee concert songlist
As garden parties go, it certainly beats a tombola and a lucky dip. The Diamond Jubilee Party at Buckingham Palace, which will be watched by an estimated one billion people, collects together the world’s biggest pop stars, and a few classical ones too, to celebrate the 60th year of the Queen’s reign in style.
Madness plan to give Our House a whole new meaning as they play it from the roof of the Palace, while Gary Barlow, the event’s organiser alongside the BBC, joins Andrew Lloyd-Webber, The Military Wives Choir and countless others for Sing!, which he wrote to mark the occasion. And with everyone from Ed Sheeran to Cliff Richard making an appearance it’s not easy to single out highlights, but a few moments look set to stand out.
Robbie Williams is almost guaranteed to pull out his big number — his hit song Let Me Entertain You, that is — to get the party started. Grace Jones is a megastar whatever the occasion, and if her recent comeback concerts have been anything to go by her set will be a laser-bedecked spectacle.
It would take a miracle to stop Shirley Bassey performing Diamonds Are Forever, while Stevie Wonder can pick pretty much anything from his back catalogue and get the 12,000-strong crowd — including the Queen, with any luck — dancing along.
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Paul McCartney is a likely contender to bring the concert to a near-end. He has revived the Wings classic Live and Let Die, and that is a suitably grandiose tune for a former Beatle to perform before our glorious monarch and 55 of her closest relatives.
Perhaps, however, the two-and-a-half-hour extravaganza needs a song that evokes the spirit of togetherness and inclusivity that the Queen has been so good at bringing out in the British people. How about Hey Jude, or Let it Be, both gifts to buskers the world over?
There’s only one evergreen smash hit that could bring a concert like this to a close: God Save the Queen (and not the version by the Sex Pistols.) Given that this is only the second Diamond Jubilee in English history, it will be a fitting finale to a remarkable event, and it will, even if it is accompanied by the patter of raindrops, mark a happy moment in the history of the sceptered isle.
* The Diamond Jubilee Concert is live on Bank Holiday Monday, BBC One, 7.30pm