In December 1985, Prince Charles and Princess Diana attended a gala performance at the Royal Opera House to celebrate the 37th birthday of the heir to the throne. Midway through the event, Diana surprised everyone by taking the stage with dancer Wayne Sleep to dance to Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” the entire theater applauded the princess’s moves and charisma, while Queen Elizabeth‘s son was left speechless.
Did Princess Diana really dance on stage Uptown Girl?
Yes, but unfortunately, there is no video of Princess Diana dancing to ‘Uptown Girl’, there are only some black and white photos that were released in 1995.
The closest to witness Princess Diana’s dance is a video by Sleep in 2017, in which he recreates the dance steps 20 years after Diana’s death, Another alternative that recalls this fact is in one of the scenes of’ ‘The Crown‘ in its fourth season.
According to the Netflix series, what was intended to be a birthday surprise for Prince Charles ended up irritating him. Apparently the heir didn’t like his wife’s leading role.
In real life, it’s unclear how the prince felt, though some accounts suggest he was unhappy with the performance. According to Vanity Fair, one of Diana’s biographers, Tina Brown, wrote that Charles was quiet and distant after the performance.
For Wayne Sleep, things were fine. At least from his vantage point at the after-party. “He had a raised eyebrow, you might say. It didn’t go beyond that at the party,” he told Vulture.
Princess Diana Uptown Girl dance
Sleep, revealed to The Guardian, that the whole thing was “All top secret.” He and the princess rehearsed privately in a studio in west London. As for the choice of song, Diana settled on Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl.
“There was a music video that accompanied the song and she must have seen the video. There’s a beautiful lady in a hat. She’s very elegant and she gets out of a car. Diana knew she could play that role of sophistication,” Sleep explained to Vulture.
On the night of the performance, Sleep signaled to Diana from the side of the stage that it was time for her to go backstage. The song began to play with Sleep on stage, shortly after which Diana made her grand entrance leaving the audience in shock.
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