A battle royale for this year’s Christmas No 1 has begun with Dame Helen Mirren taking on Dame Judi Dench and Olivia Colman to be crowned the festive chart-topper.
The three actors, who have portrayed British queens on the big and small screen, are lending their tones to some unlikely musical projects.
Mirren, star of The Queen, has voiced a meditative and whimsical song, called Lockdown Kittens Dancing, in a collaboration with the TV and radio presenter Fearne Cotton.
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The song, which features on Cotton’s debut album Happy Place, a collection of “blissful narratives” designed to improve listeners’ mental health, includes lyrical instructions to “be wonky, sexy”.
Battle royale
Dame Helen intones “face up, phone down… scroll less, Zoom out” to an ambient backing track culminating in “a glitterball of cosmic kitten stardust”.
Colman, who plays the Queen in The Crown, also narrates a poem in her Christmas contender.
She appears on Carnival, which features new poems written by the War Horse author Michael Morpurgo to accompany French composer Saint-Saëns’ suite Carnival of the Animals.
Musical accompaniment is provided by the seven Kanneh-Mason siblings from Nottingham and the poems are read by the author himself, joined by Colman.
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Dame Judi, who has portrayed queens Elizabeth I and Victoria, will sing on Songs of Praise presenter Aled Jones’ new album.
She will show off her vocal talents on the song How Can I Keep From Singing. Brian Blessed and Susan Boyle are also guest stars on the album, called Blessings, which will touch on different faiths including Quaker, Christian, Catholic, Muslim and Buddhism.
Holly Dolly Christmas
However the actresses may have to cede top spot to Dolly Parton, who will release Holly Dolly Christmas, an album which includes collaborations with goddaughter Miley Cyrus and US talk show host Jimmy Fallon on a cover of Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You.
Kylie Minogue will battle with Little Mix as her return-to-the-dancefloor album Disco is released on 6 November, the same day as Confetti, the latest by the girl group.
