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Susan Boyle Singing to Introduce Queen Elizabeth II Redefines What Power Means
The emotional moment involving Boyle and the late queen took place in 2014.
Britain's Got Talent (and AGT universe) alum Susan Boyle absolutely beamed as she sang "Mull of Kintyre" during the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, a ceremony that culminated in the arrival of the monarch herself, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Susan Boyle sings "Mull of Kintyre"
With video clips from throughout the queen's reign playing behind her, Boyle performed in a bright purple ensemble, raising her arms to indicate the sweeping, epic nature of the song.
The melody was then echoed by a procession of bagpipers, after which aerialists streaked across the sky, and finally, the arrival of Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away in 2022.
The Commonwealth Games are a multi-sport competition between former nations of the British Empire, held every four years; the next will occur in 2026. In 2014, the Games were held in Glasgow, Scotland, making "Mull of Kintyre" an appropriate choice.
Watch Boyle's powerful moment here.
What to know about "Mull of Kintyre" by Wings
While Wings, Paul McCartney's post-Beatles rock band, may be best known in the States for songs like "Live and Let Die" and "Maybe I'm Amazed," in Britain, "Mull of Kintyre" was their biggest hit.
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The song is an old-fashioned ode to the rolling green hills of Scotland, specifically the Kintyre Peninsula, where McCartney owns a farm. Released in 1977, the song features bagpipes and old-fashioned syntax, with lines like "Far have I traveled and much have I seen."
"Mull of Kintyre" hit the top of the U.K. charts three weeks after its release and stayed there for nine weeks, selling over 2 million copies along the way.
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"I was in Scotland a lot, and it just suddenly occurred to me that there were no new Scottish songs. There were lots of great old songs that the bagpipe fans played, but there was nothing new. So I thought, that’s an opportunity," McCartney recalled during a 2023 podcast interview.
He continued, "Long story short, I had the local pipe major come up with his pipes to the house, which was a very little house. He played and it was so loud that I said, 'Let’s go out into the garden,' which again was a very little garden...He played, and I got some ideas. I got what chords would work with what he was playing."
