Prince Harry and Jon Bon Jovi Release Their Musical Collaboration After Invictus Games Postponement
Prince Harry’s musical collaboration with Jon Bon Jovi has been released!
Harry, 35, and the 58-year-old rocker teamed up back in February to record a song at the iconic Abbey Road studios to aid the Duke of Sussex’s Invictus Games, which is a Paralympics-style competition for service members and veterans.
The song, a new version of Bon Jovi’s 2019 song “Unbroken,” also features the Invictus Games Choir.
The recording session was one of the last engagements Harry attended as a senior working royal, before he and wife Meghan Markle officially will step back from royal life on March 31.
HANNAH MCKAY/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Although Bon Jovi initially wrote the track for the American documentary To Be of Service, about veterans living with PTSD and the service animals that help them, he then had the idea of using the song for the Invictus Games.
“On a parallel course I thought I want to send it to Harry for the Invictus Games and to have real soldiers singing the song I thought would bring a lot of attention to the issue,” he told PEOPLE last month. “I wrote him a letter and I said ‘I’ve sung with your brother and met your father and so I said listen to it and let me know. And he said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”
As for which brother had the better singing voice, Bon Jovi said “they both have a set of pipes.”
“It was great. He’s known the song — I sent it to him back in August,” he added of the collaboration. “It was good to catch up.
Can’t get enough of PEOPLE‘s Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!
The release of the song on Friday came days after the announcement that the Invictus Games will be postponed until May or June 2021 due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic.
“This was an incredibly difficult decision for all of us to have to make,” Harry said in a personal video. “And I’m so grateful for everybody that’s worked so hard over the past couple of weeks to try to find any alternative to try and carry on these Games in a different way — in a safe way.”
“The good thing is you’ll have an extra 12 or so months to be even fitter — to get even fitter than you already are. To be at your absolute top mental and physical fitness,” he added with a smile. “In that sense, I’m really excited about the Games next year.”