His Royal Majesty King Charles III has released a personally curated playlist of songs from different genres as part of celebrating Commonwealth Day, on Monday, March 10, 2025.
The 17-track playlist, which was released as part of The King’s Music Room, aired on Apple Music 1, features Ghanaian Highlife maestro Daddy Lumba’s 2008 classic ‘Mpempem Do Me’ in the seventh position, among other global songs. The news generated a buzz on Ghanaian social media, as the legend was the only Ghanaian musician to make it onto the royal playlist, alongside Nigeria’s Davido.
The excitement of Ghanaian music enthusiasts regarding the playlist can be attributed to the fact that Ghanaian songs barely made it onto any playlists of worldwide dignitaries. A good example would be former President Obama’s annual playlist, which, more often than not, was heavily dominated by American and Nigerian musicians.
Ahead of the playlist release, the monarch stated that music has “meant a great deal” to him as it “has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories flooding back from the deepest recesses of our memory, to comfort us in times of sadness, and to take us to distant places.”
The complete song list from The Kings Music Room
- Could You Be Loved – Bob Marley & The Wailers
- My Boy Lollipop – Millie Small
- The Loco-Motion – Kylie Minogue
- The Very Thought of You – Al Bowlly
- La Vie En Rose – Grace Jones
- Love Me Again – Raye
- Mpempem Do Me – Daddy Lumba
- Kante – Davido (feat Fave)
- The Click Song – Miriam Makeba
- My Country Man – Jools Holland & Ruby Turner
- Indian Summer – Anoushka Shankar
- Anta Permana – Siti Nurhaliza
- E Te Iwi E (Call to the People) – Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
- Haven’t Met You Yet – Michael Bublé
- Hot Hot Hot – Arrow
- Crazy in Love (feat Jay-Z) – Beyonce
- Upside Down – Diana Ross