Iconic Royal images: Taylor Swift and Wimbledon

“No matter where I’ve been this year,” a journalist, at Wimbledon, told me, “even at political conferences, the only thing anyone wants to ask me about is if I know how she is.”

‘She’ is the Princess of Wales/Princess Kate/Princess Catherine/Kate Middleton/Kate.

As one photographer put it, of course he was there waiting for Kate to arrive because “it’s all Kate. It’s always Kate!”

Kate isn’t the name she or the Palace wish her to be called but it’s the name by which the world knows her. The public uses it with affection and many are now moving on to Princess Kate. The latter is inaccurate but is better than Kate Middleton which the trashier elements of the media pettily and rudely persist with, even as they make money off her image. 

That image was highly sought, at Wimbledon, this past fortnight. Even in a sea of A listers who were at the championship; Tom Cruise, Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie, Julia Roberts, Zendaya et al, it was the picture of the return to Wimbledon of the Princess that everyone wanted. 

When she did show up, on Sunday, for the men’s final,  she received a rapturous reception from the centre court crowd and the Hollywood A-listers in the Royal box, as well as from the public milling around the All England Lawn Tennis club. The way the photographers and journalists scarpered once they heard she had arrived was something to behold! They’d been waiting to capture various celebrities attending the final but the moment news came through that the Princess had arrived, they moved with lightning speed. Every Oscar winner in history could’ve turned up, arm in arm, doing cartwheels and the press would have been otherwise engaged – looking for that perfect shot of Kate. Even I, who  captured some amateur footage on an iPhone was besieged by media agencies, including a big British newspaper, for permission to use it. ‘Kate’ is a global brand in her own right as well as one with her husband, the future king, with her children and, of course with the Royal Family as a whole. 

These images of the Princess resonate because they transcend pictures of a public figure at a sporting event. Instead, they represent a relationship between the public and members of the Royal Family which the public doesn’t have with even the most beloved celebrities. The public/celebrity relationship is transactional. The celebrity provides a product; a music album, a film, a tv programme and the public responds with fandom. Senior Royals, meanwhile, give of themselves and the public responds accordingly. This giving of themselves does not mean over sharing intimate details of their lives. At its best it’s giving of their own best to the people. No one exemplified that more than Queen Elizabeth II during her 70 year reign. Prince William and Catherine Princess of Wales are following in her footsteps; maintaining the mystique of the monarchy while allowing the public to invest emotionally in aspects of their lives. Images like those from Wimbledon 2024, help humanise the Royal and cement them in the public consciousness. They help make them part of a folklore of popular cultural life.

My video below has been used by the Daily Mail (with my permission)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13638525/kate-middleton-wimbledon-carlos-alcaraz-favourite-spanish-footballer.html

Folklore leads me neatly to Taylor Swift and Royalty.

The hottest music ticket this year has been for the Eras tour shows. Taylor Swift’s mammoth tour taking in the different periods of her career is a cultural phenomenon. Not only has the public been clamouring for a chance to ‘shake it off’ (some paying thousands for the opportunity) but celebrities, politicians and public figures have been lining up to attend.

I made it to the first batch of shows at Wembley Stadium recently. So did Hollywood A listers such as Tom Cruise and Cate Blanchett and music legends Sir Paul McCartney and Jon Bon Jovi. 

To date Taylor Swift has only posted one photo of herself, on her social media, with a famous attendee. That person was Prince William, the Prince of Wales, who attended on his birthday, with his children Prince George and Princess Charlotte. The fifth person in the selfie, taken by Swift herself, was her boyfriend, NFL player, Travis Kelce. Swift had not previously shared a photo of herself with him on her social media either. So, their instagram confirmation of their relationship comes with a Royal stamp. 

Taylor Swift  doesn’t usually see guests prior to a show. She made an exception for the Royals. 

In an act of interesting co-ordination Swift posted the selfie on her social media at the same time that the Prince and Princess of Wales posted a photo of the selfie being taken. 

Between the two accounts the photos have been viewed over 65 million times, to date.

They were also splashed across newspapers, magazines, websites and television screens around the world. And shared on every social media platform. The total number of views now must be in the billions.

Was it great PR for both sides? Perfect promotion? A powerful message of a top tier alliance? A ‘break the internet’ moment partnership?

Yes. All of the above. 

But the beauty of the photo is that neither side ‘needed’ it. And therein lies its power. 

The protagonists in those two photographs complement each other. Swift offers the lustre of her stardom – whether you’re a fan or not, she is, undoubtedly, now ensconced in the echelons of the music greats. The Royals offer the kudos of 1000 years of history and the might of the monarchy.

(It was famously said of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, by Katherine Hepburn, “he gave her class, she gave him sex appeal”).

Such images become imprinted on the consciousness of the public. The selfie, taken by Swift, will become an iconic image for both sides. It will be used forever more now. It will be part of the pictorial montage of his life when he becomes king. It will be a feature of her career history. Like Elvis with President Nixon or, on a smaller scale, Oasis (Britpop) with the Blair government, these images capture a moment in the Zeitgeist. They freeze the people in them into a forever merger of two different but powerful worlds.