YolanDa Brown performs to the King at the Commonwealth Service 2023

A first at the Abbey was the jazzy delivery of Bob Marley’s Is this love by saxophonist YolanDa Brown, representing the Caribbean. YolanDa Brown must have been one of the first musicians at a Commonwealth Day Service to play while moving along the nave – to the delight of the schoolchildren and adults attending. The King was joined at the abbey by senior royals including the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the new Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh and the Princess Royal. In his first Commonwealth Day address as monarch, King Charles said the diversity of the organisation’s 56 member states continued to “amaze and inspire” him.