When the South African soprano Golda Schultz walked out in front of the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 12 September 2020, she looked both spectacular and completely at ease as she prepared to sing a new arrangement of the Last Night of the Proms staple, Jerusalem. Four minutes and three seconds later, her performance had sparked a storm.
The Metro headlined with a quote from Twitter, calling the event “a mangled abomination”, while the i reported that the “bluesy” remake annoyed traditionalists, who were then described as “aghast” by the Daily Mail. But even the strongest tabloid headlines were muted compared to the outpourings of disgust on social media, which attacked the performance as “an assault on the eardrums” and a “massacre” in which Schultz had “butchered” both the original music and British culture.
