The Duchess of Cambridge was hailed an “amazing musician” by pop star Tom Walker who wrote the song she performed on piano at her Christmas Carol concert.
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Royal Carols: Kate Middleton accompanies Tom Walker on the piano
Kate Middleton rehearsed in secret for a surprise performance at Westminster Abbey about a man who lost his grandfather during the pandemic.
Tom Walker, who wrote the song she played in a royal first, revealed what it was like working behind the scenes with the Duchess of Cambridge.
Kate hosted the event, Royal Carols: Together At Christmas, as a thank you to the people who have supported their communities during the pandemic.
A teaser clip for the musical show Together At Christmas hinted that the Duchess would also reveal a special hidden skill and play the piano on the ITV show which screened on Christmas Eve.
Mr Walker told Mirror Online Kate was “quite nervous” during her first rehearsal “because she hadn’t played with another musician in a very long time”.
The pair sat on opposite sides of the room during the “very secret” practice session when Kate played the song around nine times and “nailed it”, according to the musician.
He added: “She was just so nice. I think the first rehearsal we did she was quite nervous because she hadn’t played with another musician in a very long time.
“She’s got a piano at home but the one that we’d rented in for the day was going to be the same one we were using for the actual service.
“It was completely different to hers, so she was trying to get the feel for that.
“She’s just lovely, really chilled out, very nice, seems really approachable and just really lovely.”
Mr Walker told how Kate initially got in touch after the pair attended a charity event where he sang his own song Leave A Light On live.
“Afterwards she got in touch with me and my team and said would you mind performing this live at the carol service?” Mr Walker said.
“And I said absolutely no problem, but I’ve actually written a Christmas song this year that nobody’s heard yet.
“I’ll send it over, why don’t you listen to that because it might be more suitable for the service.”
Kate “absolutely loved” the song and asked if Mr Walker could perform it, he said.
But then a week later, her team got in touch again and said she was really keen to play the piano part on the song herself, he added.
“I didn’t even know she played piano. I was a bit like this is crazy, but absolutely, that would be wicked,” he continued.
“We arranged a rehearsal together. It was very secret, very secret – even the studio didn’t know what was going on.
“We were sitting on opposite sides of the room for Covid, rehearsing.
“That was a couple of weeks ago… it’s hard to tell because we’ve been talking about this for a while now but nobody actually knows about it.”
The pair got together and rehearsed the song around nine times after which the Duchess “absolutely nailed it”, Mr Walker said.
She was then said to spend a few more days practicing the song before a recording was made.
Mr Walker added: “I was really impressed because it’s one thing playing along with me in a studio, just the two of us.
“But then to jump straight in to playing with a live string quartet and a pianist and two backing singers, all of which she’d never met before, and then doing live takes in front of the camera – that’s a whole other jump from jamming.
“She absolutely nailed it and I was so surprised at how great she was at keeping time, because she had to start the song off and lead it.
“Amazing musician and what an amazing day, it was crazy.”
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