Who is popular today?

For years, Rule, Britannia! has had a divisive presence in the festival. It should make way for other anthems of national identityHere we go again: Britannia will continue to rule at the Last Night of the Proms. Unveiling a wide-ranging programme for this year’s festival, Sam Jackson, controller of BBC Radio 3 and also director of the Proms, assured audiences that the jingoistic 18th-century anthem would take its customary place at the climax, despite calls for it to be dropped.A dignified and unhectoring case for standing the song down was made on Desert Island Discs by the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a soloist in last year’s Last Night. Revealing that he had left the concert early to avoid it, he said: “I think maybe some people don’t realise how uncomfortable a song like that can make a lot of people feel, even if it makes [the people singing it] feel good.” Continue reading...