On July 1, 2007 at the new Wembley Stadium "Concert for Diana" was staged in front of an audience of 62,000 and beamed to a worldwide TV audience of many hundreds of millions in over 140 countries. The concert, organised by Prince William and Prince Harry to celebrate the life of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, on what would have been her 46th birthday proved to be a spectacular success -- with the UK TV viewing figure peaking at a massive 15 million. The entire concert, and many extra features, is captured on a two disc DVD which will be released on November 13 from Hip-O/UMe.

Last Summer's "Concert for Diana" featured a truly unique artist line-up, spanning a broad artistic spectrum ...from Pharrell Williams to the English National Ballet, with the criteria being that the artists invited were some of the favourites of the Princess and the Princes: this resulted in an intoxicating blend of rock, pop, rap, classical and musical theatre. The two disc DVD, filmed by Janet Fraser Crook, features all of the 21 memorable performances by many of the world's greatest musicians: Elton John, Rod Stewart, P. Diddy, Joss Stone, Bryan Ferry, Natasha Bedingfield, Fergie, Pharrell Williams, Lily Allen, Take That, Roger Hodgson of Supertramp, Tom Jones, James Morrison, Orson, Joe Perry, Kanye West, The Feeling, Status Quo, Will Young, Nelly Furtado and Duran Duran. In recognition of Diana's love of ballet, the English National Ballet gave a spell binding performance of an extract from Swan Lake, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals medley, packed with surprise guests Anastacia, Connie Fisher, Andrea Ross, Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman, Josh Groban, Donny Osmond, Jason Donovan and Lee Mead, reflected the Princess's fondness for musical theatre. Star presenters included Kiefer Sutherland, Sienna Miller, David Beckham, Ricky Gervais, Dennis Hopper and Jamie Oliver.


The "Concert for Diana" DVD, like the concert itself, is presented in three acts and includes much fascinating unseen footage. With a running time of over five and a half hours, the "Concert for Diana" DVD includes all the artists and presenters as well as a fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary. The DVD also contains all the poignant 'Diana and me' films, a series of short films about Diana which were interwoven through the concert and give compelling testimony from people of all ages and walks of life about how the Princess touched so many people's lives.


The front cover of the DVD features one of the best-loved images of Diana, taken by Mario Testino at her last official portrait session. It is one of the photographs currently on show as part of Testino's exhibition in the State Apartments at Kensington Palace. Accompanying the DVD is a 20 page booklet which contains a wonderful photographic record of the events on July 1 at Wembley stadium.


The charities benefiting from the sale of the "Concert for Diana" DVD will be identical to the concert beneficiaries -- The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, Sentebale, the Lesotho children's charity Prince Harry founded in her memory, and the six charities of which the Princess was Patron at the time of her death -- Centrepoint, English National Ballet, Great Ormond Street Hospital, The National Aids Trust, The Leprosy Mission and The Royal Marsden Hospital.


In the days after the concert, the media and public both in the UK and around the world agreed that an event that had been planned as a fabulous birthday party had succeeded in being exactly that ... an occasion full of fun and laughter, and of a sense of joyous celebration.