The global recognition of Queen‘s songs and their remarkable body of work may soon lead to an astonishing sale of their catalog.
According to a source knowledgeable about the music acquisition, discussions between Universal Music Group and Disney Music Group for the acquisition of Queen’s catalog are “well underway.”
The source further disclosed that the potential sale could surpass an astounding $1 billion, and the deal is anticipated to be finalized within the next month.
CNN has contacted Universal Music Group, Disney Music Group, and a representative for the band for comments on the matter.
In December 2021, Bruce Springsteen made headlines when he sold his song catalog for an estimated $500 million, a figure that currently stands as one of the highest amounts for a music catalog sale.
However, if the Queen sale materializes, a new record is likely to be established.
The remarkable billion-dollar valuation of Queen’s music catalog can be attributed, at least in part, to the tremendous success of the 2018 Oscar-winning film “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
The movie vividly portrayed the band’s origins, with a special emphasis on the iconic Freddie Mercury, leading to a resurgence in the popularity of Queen’s music.
In addition to Queen, other notable artists such as Justin Bieber, the estate of David Bowie, and Sting have recently concluded sales of their respective music catalogs as well, indicating a trend of significant transactions in the industry.
Queen Sekinat Aramide Ajoke, the first wife of Oba Alayeluwa Saheed Ademola Elegushi, has said that it is typical of men to cheat on their wives.
“There is no man that is not promiscuous, it’s not possible except those that are yet to be born,” she said.
Speaking in an interview with BBC News Yoruba, the monarch’s wife noted that she is not bothered by her husband’s love for other women as nobody can take her place in her his life.
Queen Sekinat recalled how she met her husband, picked interest in her, and proposed to her.
She said; “My mum has a shop on Lagos Island. That’s where the king, Oba Saheed Ademola saw me and picked interest in me. I gave him a chance and we became friends.”
“However, I told him that I had a boyfriend at the time but he said there’s no problem with that since we were only going to be friends. Whenever I tell him that I’m going to see my boyfriend, he usually insists on accompanying me there. In fact, he knew my boyfriend then. Eventually, we started dating. And in 2003, he proposed to me, saying he wanted me to be his wife. I love him and he also loves me despite the fact that he had other women in his life. For someone like him, who loves women, I ought to have turned him down that I cannot cope but we got along till he proposed and we got married.”
“God has given me a patient and enduring spirit since childhood, my husband knows that I don’t disturb him on issues that have to do with women. That is because I know he truly loves me, and he always puts me first. So, I’m not scared because I know no one can take my place or anyone that’ll make me start questioning my place in his life”
“And I am aware that he knows what is good. So there’s nothing that scares me. He has different friends. I have no problem with him liking women because I know that no one can take my place”
She urged women to secure their homes with patience when dealing with their promiscuous husbands.
“It’s basically all men, it does not have to do with my husband alone. It is now left for the wife at home to handle the situation well,” she said.
“There is no man that is not promiscuous, it’s not possible except those that are yet to be born,” she added.
Musicians including Pink, Queen and Def Leppard have paid tribute to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins at a memorial concert in Los Angeles.
They joined the star’s former bandmates in Foo Fighters and Chevy Metal to play the songs he loved, as fans celebrated his memory.
Foos frontman Dave Grohl said the show honoured the fact that “this many people connected through one person”.
Other star guests included Miley Cyrus, Rush, Cars and Mötley Crüe.
Alanis Morisette – for whom Hawkins played drums before he joined Foo Fighters – gave a fierce performance of You Oughta Know; while comedian Dave Chapelle unexpectedly covered Radiohead’s Creep.
Pink made several appearances during the concert, joining Heart’s Nancy Wilson to duet on Barracuda, before tackling Queen’s Somebody To Love – a song that Hawkins often covered in concert himself – and teaming up with Foo Fighters to sing The Pretender at the show’s finale.
British rock band Def Leppard recalled that they had first encountered Hawkins when he was a “20-year-old kid” working in a guitar shop in LA.
“About five years later we did Top Of The Pops in England [and] this kid walks into the dressing room. He was playing drums for Alanis Morisette,” recalled singer Joe Elliot.
“That was Taylor Hawkins, so in memory of. Let’s do some proper songs for Taylor.”
The band played Rock Of Ages before being joined briefly by pop star Miley Cyrus for an expansive version of Photograph.
“It’s like a revolving door of rock heroes tonight,” said Grohl halfway through the concert, which also saw performances from Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach, Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich.
Image source, EPAImage caption, Hawkins drummed with Foo Fighters for over two decades
One of the most moving moments came when the surviving members of Nirvana, Grohl and Krist Novoselic, teamed up with fellow grunge musicians Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil of Soundgarden – who lost their lead singer Chris Cornell five years ago.
Together, they played haunting versions of The Day I Tried to Live and Black Hole Sun, with vocals from Taylor Momsen of the Pretty Reckless.
Rush, who are also mourning the loss of their drummer Neil Peart, played Working Man with assistance from Red Hot Chili Pepper Chad Smith and YYZ with Danny Carey of Tool.
And Wolfgang Van Halen delivered flawless renditions of his father’s fretwork on covers of pop-metal classics Panama and Hot For Teacher.
The concert came less than a month after a previous tribute show at Wembley Stadium in London, which saw Foo Fighters joined by Sir Paul McCartney, Liam Gallagher and Supergrass.
As at that concert, Hawkins’ children played a key role, with his teenage son Shane stepping behind the drum kit for a blistering rendition of the Foo Fighters’ hits My Hero and I’ll Stick Around.
Hawkins’ other children Everleigh and Annabel, also appeared on stage with their mother, Alison, after Queen’s Brian May played Love Of My Life – a song that Alison had requested specially.
Earlier, the show had opened with Grohl’s daughter Violet giving a low-key, moving performance of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.
Six hours later, Foo Fighters closed the show with Everlong.
“This one’s for Taylor,” Grohl told the audience at LA’s Kia Forum. “We love you.”
Hawkins drummed with Foo Fighters from 1997 until his death in March of this year, aged 50.
No cause of death was announced, although a toxicology report showed traces of 10 substances in his body, including opioids, marijuana and anti-depressants.
Investigators did not say whether the mix of drugs was a factor.
Proceeds from both the London and Los Angeles tribute concerts will go to the charities Music Support and MusiCares.
The Queen’s role in public life was tightly choreographed and she often had to keep a straight face.
But in her later years, she gave us a glimpse of her sense of humour.
From sharing a marmalade sandwich with Paddington Bear to photobombing Australian hockey players, here is a look back at some of her funniest moments.
As part of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June, the Queen was filmed having tea with Paddington Bear, in a sketch which opened the BBC’s Party at the Palace marking her 70 years on the throne.
As the celebrations were about to begin, Paddington offered her his beloved snack – a marmalade sandwich. “I always keep one for emergencies,” he told her, pulling one out from under his famous red hat.
“So do I,” replied the Queen, opening up her signature black handbag and taking out her own.
When the Queen met James Bond
As part of the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Queen made a dramatic entrance with the help of another British icon – James Bond.
In a skit created by director Danny Boyle, the Queen received a visit from 007 in Buckingham Palace, before the pair left together by helicopter. She then appeared to skydive into the Olympic Stadium to greet cheering crowds.
Boom: The Queen and Prince Harry responded to Barack and Michelle Obama’s Invictus Games challenge
In 2016, the Queen appeared in another viral video clip – this time with her grandson Prince Harry to promote the Invictus Games.
The pair watched a video message from former US president and first lady Barack and Michelle Obama, who issued Prince Harry a sporting challenge.
The Queen was unfazed. “Oh really, please,” she said.
Cutting a cake with a ceremonial sword
The Queen insisted on cutting a cake with a ceremonial sword at an event at the Eden Project in Cornwall.
The Queen cut many cakes during her lifetime, once with a ceremonial sword. She tried out the more unorthodox method at a charity event in Cornwall.
When a volunteer reminded her that a standard knife was available, the Queen was undeterred.
“I know there is,” she retorted, continuing to clutch the sword. “This is more unusual.”
Photobombing Australian hockey players
Image source, @_JaydeTaylor
In 2014, two Australian hockey players were left stunned when the Queen appeared smiling in the background of their picture at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Jayde Taylor (left) posted the first image on Twitter and said: “Ahhh The Queen photo-bombed our selfie!”, with the tweet instantly going viral.
Giggling at a swarm of bees
Image source, Chris Young / PA Media
The Queen was accompanied by her husband, the late Duke of Edinburgh, at thousands of official engagements.
But during a military review at Windsor Castle in 2003, a swarm of bees derailed the normal efficient-running of events. The royal couple saw the funny side, captured on camera by photographer Chris Young.
“It was a human moment,” he told the BBC. “She was giggling like a little girl and he was laughing too.”
The Queen came to the throne at the dawn of the age of mass media. Her coronation in 1953 was the first national television event, and almost every step she then took in public was captured on film.
As for her private moments, a number of actresses have attempted to portray what might have gone on behind closed doors.
Here are some of the documentaries that opened a window into her life, and some high-profile, fictionalised portrayals that helped shape public perceptions.
The Crown (Netflix series, 2016-present)
Image source, Netflix
You can’t write about the Queen on screen without mentioning The Crown, Netflix’s major series tracing the reign of the monarch from her ascension to the early 2000s.
Claire Foy and Olivia Colman have played the lead in the four seasons so far. Imelda Staunton is taking over for the fifth, which is scheduled to launch in November and be set in the 1990s.
The series feels at time like a high-class soap opera, accentuating the supposed drama and conflict both among the Royal Family and between the monarch and prime ministers, although its historical accuracy has been widely criticised.
Touching recollections from the Queen’s own children set this 90-minute documentary apart from most other factual films about her life and times.
With so few opportunities to see truly intimate moments between the Royal Family, the obvious and genuine affection with which they speak gives us some insight into their relationships with their mother when they were a family first and royal second.
Prince Charles, as he was known at the time of filming, recalls an early memory from when he was just three. “I shall never forget, when we were small, having a bath and she came in practising wearing the crown before the coronation,” he says. “All those sorts of marvellous moments, I shall never forget.”
Elsewhere, narrator Kirsty Young tells the story of both the private and public sides of the Queen’s reign in her warm, authoritative style.
Image source, Channel 4
Veteran presenter Jon Snow opens this hour-long special with a very personal connection – proudly showing a blurry black-and-white photo of himself and his brothers meeting the Queen five years after her coronation, when he was 10.
His main memory is that the encounter involved repainting the downstairs loo beforehand in case one of the royals needed to go (they did not). Otherwise he doesn’t remember much, “except that she was small, pleated skirt, hatted, didn’t say much”. He adds: “Prince Philip – he said a lot, but I didn’t understand very much of it.”
Snow peppers the programme with more memories, both his own and from others, such as his next door neighbour, a former lady in waiting.
He balances these personal moments by using his journalistic rigour to also tell the official history, re-examining the most momentous episodes from the Queen’s seven decades on the throne, from her coronation to the controversies of the 1990s.
The Queen’s Coronation in Colour (ITV/Netflix documentary, 2018)
Image source, Getty Images
The start of the Queen’s reign may now seem to belong in a distant historical age. Colour coverage of the coronation and some more relaxed behind-the-scenes footage that was commissioned by the young Queen herself help bring the occasion to life.
There are interviews with some of those who took part, such as the maids of honour who had to stop one of their members from fainting during the ceremony. We hear how the Archbishop of Canterbury later helped revive her by giving her a swig of brandy in the vestry.
The programme, presented by Alexander Armstrong, also includes wonderful amateur footage of joyous and occasionally eccentric street parties that took place around the UK on the same day.
Elizabeth R – A Year in the Life of the Queen (BBC documentary, 1992)
Image source, Getty ImagesThe Queen being filmed for Elizabeth R while watching the Epsom Derby horse race in 1991
If you would like to peek behind the velvet curtain, the makers of this documentary were given rare access to follow the Queen over the course of a year in 1990 and 1991.
It captures private moments and meetings at her various residences and on tour. It’s particularly refreshing to see her acting and chatting naturally – whether that be joking with Nelson Mandela or batting back a light-hearted dressing down she got from a retirement home resident in Yorkshire.
There is also a voiceover from the monarch herself, in much less formal tones than we are used to hearing in her speeches.
And perhaps the closest the Queen has come to losing her temper on camera is a fleeting mother-daughter flash – the type any family will know – when the Queen Mother teases her while they’re watching the Epsom Derby.
Otherwise there’s not much royal scandal on show, and if you want drama then you should watch The Crown. This was filmed just before her “annus horribilis” of 1992, so captures the calm before the storm.
Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts (Amazon Prime Video documentary, 2022)
More irreverent and lively than most royal documentaries – while remaining respectful – this 90-minute film splices together archive of the Queen and her surrounding culture, jumping back and forth in time across her 70 years.
Released for her Platinum Jubilee earlier this year, it was the last work by Notting Hill and The Duke director Roger Michell before he died a year ago.
His style, using cut-up footage to compile loose themed chapters rather than telling a chronological story, gives it a fresh feel and helps break down some of the pomp and formality that surrounded the monarch.
Elizabeth: Our Queen (Channel 5, 2018)
For a more comprehensive account of her life, covering the highs and lows of her unique status in the nation, this seven-and-a-half hour, four-part series should satisfy.
It uses the familiar TV documentary formula of news archive combined with talking-head commentary from historians, politicians and members of the royal circle.
While there may be few new revelations, it offers an in-depth and nostalgic journey down memory lane.
The Queen (Netflix film, 2006)
Image source, Getty Images
Dame Helen Mirren won an Oscar for best actress for playing the title role in 2006 film The Queen.
Set in the wake of the death of Princess Diana in 1997, the movie depicted one of the most challenging moments for the monarch, when she was perceived as aloof and slow to respond to the national mood.
Dame Helen revealed earlier this year that she had written to the real Queen before filming to say: “We are investigating a very difficult time in your life. I hope it’s not too awful for you.” The actress told the Radio Times: “I can’t remember how I put it. I just said that in my research I found myself with a growing respect for her.”
The actress has also previously said she did not know whether the Queen had watched the film, but “I got the sense that it had been seen and that it had been appreciated”.
How she got that sense is not clear, given that the portrayal is not always entirely flattering – including for the wider family – and that Mirren added: “I’ve never heard directly, and I never will.”
A Royal Night Out (film, 2015)
Image source, Lionsgate/ShutterstockSarah Gadon played Princess Elizabeth as she joined the VE Day celebrations
This 2015 film starred Canadian actress Sarah Gadon as a 19-year-old Princess Elizabeth, who goes out onto the streets incognito with sister Margaret during the celebrations on VE Day, the end of World War Two in Europe in 1945.
It’s a light-hearted and charming reimagining of the princesses’ night of anonymous freedom, loosely based on real events when the sisters did indeed join the merry throng on The Mall outside Buckingham Palace.
However, it seems unlikely that Elizabeth did really meet a dashing airman on a double-decker bus before cavorting through the city with him and taking him back to the palace for breakfast with her mother and father – but the film’s writers decided they too could use artistic licence when filling in the blanks about the Queen’s life.
Quote Message: As we grieve together, we know that, in losing our beloved Queen, we have lost the person whose steadfast loyalty, service and humility has helped us make sense of who we are”
He added that the Queen leaves behind a truly extraordinary legacy “that is found in almost every corner of our national life, as well as the lives of so many nations around the world, and especially in the Commonwealth”.
The archbishop says he met her on many occasions. He paid tribute to her “clarity of thinking, capacity for careful listening, inquiring mind, humour, remarkable memory and extraordinary kindness”.
As the flag was lowered at Windsor Castle, and the announcement was made, there was stunned silence.
Shock. Disbelief. Her Majesty the Queen had died at the age of 96.
A woman next to me burst into tears. For most of the afternoon the rain had poured down in Windsor.
Soon after the announcement, the skies cleared, and a rainbow appeared.
Castle staff covered visitor signs in black paper. Crowds began to gather. They laid flowers. And candles.
Windsor Castle was the Queen’s much-loved home. Locals here saw her as their neighbour.
They along with so many around the world, will feel her loss deeply.
The Duke of Sussex has now arrived at Balmoral, where a few floral tributes have already been laid, a few hours after his brother William and Princes Andrew and Edward.
Prince Harry will join other members of the Royal Family as they mourn the death of the Queen, who died earlier this afternoon.
His wife Meghan did not travel with him to Scotland.
The Family of Nana Aplam II, the Paramount Queenmother of the Lower Manya Krobo Traditional Council in the Eastern Region who was reportedly destooled recently, has described the action as null and void.
According to the royal family, the allegations being levelled against Nana Aplam II which constituted the bases for the purported destoolment are baseless and logically flawed.
The Odumase Council, which is in charge of the installation of chiefs and queenmothers of the Manya Krobo Traditional Area, reportedly acting on the orders of the Konor for the area, Nene Sakite II, on May 11, 2020, destooled the paramount queenmother, citing her marriage to a man from the rival Manya Division as one of the reasons for the action.
The decision for her destoolment was linked to her recent marriage to a lawyer who is said to be a relative of the head of Manya Division, Nene Sasraku IV, from one of the five breakaway divisions under the traditional council.
A statement issued and signed by the secretary to the Odumase Council had said the queenmother, five years after her installation, had failed to perform her primary duties, responsibilities, and obligation to the Manya Krobo stool.
Family
However, in a press statement, the Kwame Nguah Family of the queenmother rubbished the action of the council.
They said no destoolment rituals had been performed against Nana Aplam II, as has been erroneously put out by the Odumase Council and, therefore, no one could claim that she had been destooled.
The family categorically stated that Nana Aplam II remains the lawfully enstooled paramount queenmother of Manya Krobo and cautioned the Odumase Council to desist from bringing the good name of Manya Krobo, the family, and in particular the name of Nana Aplam II into disrepute and urged the public to disregard the press statements issued by the Odumase Council.
Divisional Chiefs
In the heat of the destoolment claims, the five divisional chiefs of the Manya Krobo Traditional Area distanced themselves from the raging controversy.
The chiefs included Nene Okpatakpla Sasraku IV of the Manya Division, Nene Bediako Muala III of Dorm Division, Nene Tetteh Zogli of Piengua Division, Nene Owuadjao Angmor II of Suisi Division and Nene Asare Odonkor II of Akwenor Division.
SubQueenmothers
Later, the Manya Krobo Queenmothers Association gave the Konor and the kingmakers seven days to reinstate the paramount queenmother or face their wrath.
Manye Ami Bordor II, queenmother of Agomanya, who is leading the queenmothers, accused the traditional authorities of disuniting the people instead of bringing them together.
The Queen has left Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, according to BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond.
Her Easter visit to Windsor has been brought forward by a week and she is likely to stay there beyond the Easter period, Buckingham Palace has said.
It comes after the palace announced that the state visit of the emperor and empress of Japan to the UK had been postponed. It was planned for the spring but will be rescheduled to a later date.
History confirms that the Moors ruled in Europe — primarily Spain and Portugal — for almost 700 years. They were known for their influence in European culture, but not many people know that the Moors were actually Europeans of African descent.
Moors were usually depicted as being “mostly black or very swarthy, and hence the word is often used for negro,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Several written works at the time also confirm that. The 16th century English playwrights William Shakespeare used the word Moor as a synonym for African and Christopher Marlowe used Moor and African interchangeably.
Author and historian Chancellor Williams said “the original Moors, like the original Egyptians, were black Africans.” An Arab chronicler also described Moorish Emperor Yusuf ben-Tachfin as “a brown man with wooly hair.”
In European Art, Moors are also often shown with African features: pitch black, frizzled hair, flat and wide face, flat-nosed, and thick lips. The Drake Jewel, a rare documented piece of jewel from the 16th century, seemed to show a profile of a Black king dominating the profile of a white woman.
Moreover, Moors were known to have contributed in areas of mathematics, astronomy, art, cuisine, medicine, and agriculture that helped develop Europe and bring them from the Dark Ages into the Renaissance.
Generations of Spanish rulers have allegedly tried to abolish this era from the historical record. But recent archaeology determined that Moors indeed ruled in Al-Andalus for more than 700 years — from 711 A.D. to 1492.
