The track was released via digital download and CD single on 28 May 2012, and was performed as part of the Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee Concert celebrations on 4 June 2012.
[4] It was announced in January that six-time Ivor Novello recipient Gary Barlow and world-renowned composer Andrew Lloyd Webber would be working together to write the official Diamond Jubilee single.
Barlow and Lloyd Webber aimed to write the music to the song before Barlow would travel The Commonwealth looking for musicians, singers and contributors and begin writing the lyrics and producing the song as he visited remote villages and countries from across the Caribbean, Africa, the Pacific Islands and Australasia to find singers to perform in front of the Queen.
"[4] Barlow revealed that the music of the song was written in January during "an afternoon round at [Lloyd Webber's] house, [with a] couple of pianos and it was really good fun actually."
The final record features more than two-hundred singers and musicians, including a guest appearance from Prince Harry on tambourine, the African Children's Choir, the Kibera Drummers from Kenya as well as the Military Wives Choir conducted by Gareth Malone, well-known musicians such as reggae duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, and ska guitarist Ernest Ranglin.
He continues by calling the accompanying video "a delight, beginning with Barlow pressing play on a CD in front of Prince Charles – and going on to show him recording singers from Jamaica, Kenya, Australia and the Solomon Islands, as well as our own Military Wives Choir and some Scottish bagpipers.
He concludes by stating that the song is a refreshingly unstarry work and it's every bit as stirring as you'd expect [and that] there's no doubt even her Majesty will tap a toe.
[10] Tim Walker of The Independent referred to the song as a "testament to Barlow's songwriting that having elicited contributions from Australia, Africa, Jamaica, the South Pacific and the House of Windsor – he has managed to produce something that sounds like a Take That track.
The choirs sang from: Elstree at Elstree Studios the studios on the outskirts of London where the main telethon was held, Bath at The Roman Baths,[29] Belfast at BBC Blackstaff House,[30] Manchester at Z-arts,[31] Falmouth at The National Maritime Museum,[32] Glasgow at BBC Pacific Quay,[33] Birmingham at the Library of Birmingham,[34] Kettering at Wicksteed Park,[35] Merthyr Tydfil at Merthyr Tydfil College[36][37] and Hexham at Hexham Trinity Methodist Church[38]