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A tongue-in-cheek tribute song dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II has gone viral after being uploaded to social media platform TikTok.
The song, which was written and performed by singer songwriters Diana Vickers and Chiara Hunter, who co-host Ki & Dee: The Podcast, after the queen's death, has been viewed over 700,000 times and gained in excess of 100,000 likes.
The TikTok video is captioned "Yas Queen" and features verses of humorous praise for the monarch who died aged 96 while staying at her Scottish home of Balmoral Castle on September 8.
Intimate details such as "little tiny dogs—corgis" and "rebellious sister—Margaret" are referenced between the repeated chorus of:
"She was the queen, the actual queen, could you imagine what it'd be like to be the actual queen, the literal queen, could you imagine what it'd be like to be?"
The video has won praise from TikTok users who commented "THIS should've been the national anthem!" and "THIS IS A WORK OF ART."
Of the success of the video, Vickers and Hunter told Newsweek they have been surprised at just how many commenters seemed to request a studio release of the song.
"It's so funny, in the comments, we have people being like 'I totally played this on repeat at a house party this weekend' it's mad, and we're like yes, fair play," said Vickers.
This isn't something that's been ruled out, as Hunter added: "We get a lot of requests like 'we need this, where can we find it!' So, we'll see..."
@kianddeeshow YAS you’re a Queen but imagine being the ACTUAL Queen A tribute to the late #queenelizabeth #fyp #foryoupage #thequeen #themonarchy #soverign #spicegirls #marilynmonroe #nelsonmandela #enriqueiglesias #philandholly #hollyandphil #princelouis #princessmargaret #cows ♬ original sound - kianddeeshow
The pair are close friends as well as professional partners, having started writing what they call "silly little songs" together during the COVID pandemic.
"Chiara moved in with me just before lockdown," said Vickers. "We didn't realize we would be locked down together but then we made something fun out of the situation.
"We're both musicians and writers, so we started writing silly little songs about COVID doing covers at first and had a bit of a giggle. Then after the pandemic ended we were like 'why don't we just continue to write songs about our lives and make up our original melodies.'
"Those were about our dating life and being in our 30s and being a bit of a mess and people really enjoyed them, so then we sort of got on the trends."
After having a viral hit with a parody song about the reality TV hit Love Island the pair turned their social satirical gaze towards putting together a tribute to the late queen.
"It was about finding things in the news that resonated with us and obviously when Queen Elizabeth died it was like 'How can we pay tribute to this woman, an icon, and do it respectfully but still do it in our way?,'" commented Hunter. "We hemmed and hawed a bit. In the end it felt like a celebration of all the little things that make her iconic."
"We did it within a short time frame," Vickers recalled, "so we didn't want it to feel like it was a bit too soon or that we hadn't got the timing quite right because it is a celebration and quite fun. She was a powerhouse of a woman."
Among the humorous inclusions in the song is a reference to the monarch's dresser Angela Kelly's role of breaking in her shoes before formal events, an intimate anecdote revealed in the royal aide's memoir.
"We need to get Angela Kelly on the podcast," said Hunter. "I just think she would be fascinating to speak to. I'm not really a monarchist but I'm obsessed with royals from medieval times to now."
Kelly was among the 2,000 mourners who attended the queen's state funeral at Westminster Abbey on September 19, where she joined a number of the monarch's closest staff members.
Whether King Charles III will retain Kelly's services or whether she will now retire is unknown. Reports that circulated after the queen's death stated that her personal royal staff had a contractual six-month grace period after her death in which the future of their employment would be determined.
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About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more