King Charles III pays tribute to Tina Turner at Buckingham Palace

King Charles III paid a musical tribute to music icon Tina Turner on Friday last week following news of her death on Wednesday, May 24.

The newly-crowned monarch permitted the Band of the Welsh Guards to perform the singer's 1989 hit "The Best" during the changing of the guard in front of Buckingham Palace.

The First Battalion Welsh Guards Corps of Drums also joined the group for the ceremony, where The King's Guard hands over the responsibility of protecting Buckingham Palace and St. James' Palace to the New Guard.

A video circulated on Twitter, showing the emotional moment with commentators applauding the wonderful tribute. One tweeted, "Wonderful. Well done to our King and what a brilliant band!"

"OMG! I'm so excited and emotional for this wonderful tribute. Thanks, your Majestic [sic] King Charles, and thanks to the honorable Welsh Guards Band. I LOVE IT," another wrote.

A third commented, "A lovely tribute to Tina by the WelshGuards! I felt happy and sad listening to it! Thank you for all the songs, Tina," and one more chimed in, "That's just fabulous gesture of the King and the sound is amazing!"

Turner died at the age of 83 after a long illness, compounded by a bout of intestinal cancer, high blood pressure, and a kidney transplant, at her home near Zurich in Switzerland. Her publicist announced her passing in a statement shared by Hello! magazine.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner," it read. "With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow."

The singer, who's real name is Anna Mae Bullock, was known as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll." Among her hits include "Private Dancer," "What's Love Got To Do With It," "The Best," and more.

"The Best" was Princess Diana's favourite song from Turner, according to Prince William. He revealed in a December 2021 episode of the Apple Fitness+ "Time to Walk" series that the late royal would play the track for him and Prince Harry on the way to school. He said she would play it to ease their back-to-school anxieties.

"When I was younger, Harry and I, we were at boarding school. And my mother used to play all sorts of songs to kind of while away the anxiety of going back to school. And one of the songs I massively remember and has stuck with me all this time, and I still, to this day, still quite enjoy secretly, is Tina Turner's 'The Best' because sitting in the backseat, singing away, it felt like a real family moment. And my mother, she'd be driving along, singing at the top of her voice. And we'd even get the policeman in the car, he'd be occasionally singing along, as well," the dad of three said at the time.

He added, "You'd be singing and listening to the music right the way out into the gates of school when they dropped you off and that's when reality kind of sunk in that you really were going back to school because before that, you're lost in songs. You'll want to play it again just to keep that family moment going."

Prince William shared that when he listens to Turner's "The Best" now, it takes him to "those car rides and brings back lots of memories" of his mother. As for King Charles III, he first met Turner when she performed at The Prince's Trust "All-Star Rock Concert" at Wembley Stadium in London in 1986. She is survived by her second husband Erwin Bach, a German music executive, and two of her four children.