Invited to the D-Day commemorations, British singer Tom Jones delivered a poignant rendition of the song “I Won’t Crumble With You If You Fall”.
Singer Tom Jones, 84 years old on June 7, delivered a moving performance on June 6, 2024 during the D-Day commemorations in Ver-sur-mer in Calvados, in the presence of King Charles III and President Emmanuel Macron.
The British singer performed a song called I Won’t Crumble With You If You Fall (I won’t collapse with you if you fall). This song, with its hymn accents, appears on Tom Jones’ album, Surrounded by timereleased in April 2021. It is a cover of a song by African-American activist Bernice Johnson Reagon. I won’ crumble with you if you fall was featured on the album Give Your Hands to Struggle: The Evolution of a freedom fighter of the activist, in 1975.
Those who never came home
Other artists performed during this ceremony, in the presence of British veterans. We were able to hear the actor Martin Freeman reading the letter from a soldier who participated in the Landings. “I want to pay tribute to those who did not survive. May they rest in peace,” he concluded.
King Charles III also spoke in French and English, also paying tribute to the soldiers “who never came home”. The king, whose mother, Queen Elizabeth, had herself served in the war effort as a mechanic, cited the words of his grandfather, then-reigning King George VI.
