The audience at Royal Albert Hall got a rare treat Saturday — the chance to sing “Happy Birthday” to the longest-reigning monarch in British history. Queen Elizabeth II, with her eldest son Prince Charles at her side, waved to the crowd as they celebrated her 92nd birthday in song. Charles got an enthusiastic response when he introduced her as: “Your majesty, mummy.” The festivities took a long stroll down memory lane, with audio from a speech Elizabeth made on her 21st birthday and video from her Golden Jubilee, when roughly 1 million people gathered outside Buckingham Palace to honor her. She was flanked in the royal box by Charles, heir to the throne, and Prince William, next in the line of succession. Prince Harry and fiancee Meghan Markle also attended, generating a roar of applause when they took their seats. The couple will wed May 19 at Windsor Castle. Prince William’s wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, did not attend. She is expecting the couple’s third child. The queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was also missing. He is recovering from hip replacement surgery. The queen celebrates two birthdays every year: Her actual birthday on April 21, which she usually marks privately with her family, and her “official birthday” in the summer. That usually falls on the second Saturday in June, when she joins the Trooping the Color military parade in central London.
Singer-songwriter Roberta Flack was under observation at a Manhattan hospital Saturday after suddenly feeling ill before her appearance at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. The 81-year-old Grammy award-winner was taken to Harlem Hospital in an ambulance Friday evening, TMZ reported. Flack apparently became very dizzy as she was about to receive a lifetime achievement award from The Jazz Foundation of America. She was in the theater’s green room, waiting to go onstage, when she suffered some kind of “episode” those around her feared might have been related to a stroke she suffered two years ago, said Jazz Foundation spokesman Bobbi Marcus. On Saturday, Marcus said she spoke to Flack’s manager “and am happy to report that she’s doing well.” Friday evening, Flack arrived at the Apollo in a wheelchair for red carpet photos, looking “beautiful with hair and makeup,” Marcus said. She was being honored at the foundation’s annual benefit concert, called “A Great Night In Harlem.” The show still went on, including a tribute segment to the singer who had gained fame in the 1970s and 1980s with such hit songs as “Killing Me Softly” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”
