George Ezra has explained why he changed the lyrics to his hit Green Green Grass for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration earlier this month.
The British hitmaker played two of his hits at the Platinum Party at the Palace to a crowd of 22,000 people outside Buckingham Palace and millions viewing at home to celebrate the 96-year-old monarch’s 70 years on the throne.
Watch the moment below:
However, Ezra’s fans noticed during his performance that he left out the end of one of his lines that referred to dying, which caused many to take to social media.
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In the song Green Green Grass, the lyrics usually go: "Green green grass, blue blue sky / You better throw a party on the day that I die."
However, the 28-year-old singer didn't sing those lines and chose to omit them. At the time, the reference to a party and death was called out as 'tempting fate' by some viewers.
One fan tweeted: "I wonder if George Ezra didn’t want to tempt fate yesterday be deliberately leaving out the last few words in the chorus of Green Green Grass [sic]."
Another found the missing lyrics comical, as they shared: "The fact that George Ezra did not sing « on the day that I die » while performing Green Green Grass for the Queen’s jubilee is peak comedy to me."
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Now explaining the change of tune, Ezra said he was asked by the producers of the Jubilee celebration to leave it out so not to cause offence.
The Shotgun singer told The Sun: "I think the reaction to it has kind of worked in our favour to say it was unnecessary. My gut instinct was that you don’t need to change it.
“I don’t know if it came from the royals or the producers of the show, but it’s pretty obvious that if you’re playing for the Royal Family and the powers that be say, ‘We don’t want you to sing that lyric’, then you’re not going to argue.”
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Despite the reference to death in the song, the Brit Award winner said the catchy tune is anything but morbid – in fact it’s all about celebrating life.
He added: “I’m not demanding anybody does anything on the day that I’ve passed away. It’s a song about celebrating life. And it feels good when you sing it.
“We felt it as a special song when we were producing it. There was a moment when we looked at each other. We were excited about it. It was a good sign and the response to it has been amazing.”
Featured Image Credit: Alamy