Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran performs on the Hammersmith Apollo in London for the 2021 Billboard Music Awards Stuart WIlson/BBMA2021/Getty Images for dcp
Duran Duran frontman Simon Le Bon was honored with an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for his contributions to music and charity at a ceremony held at Windsor Castle on Nov. 12.
The award, introduced by William, Prince of Wales, acknowledges Le Bon’s lasting affect on music in addition to his dedication to charitable causes.
Le Bon shared his pleasure and gratitude for the award, calling it “incredible and totally unexpected.” Reflecting on the glory again in June, he acknowledged, “It is fitting that the honour has been awarded not just for my role in music, but also for the work I’ve been fortunate to be involved with outside the band for some of the causes I believe in.”
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After receiving the celebrated accolade, Le Bon instructed the Press Association: “It’s the most immediate and essential aspect of our job, getting up and singing a song or making some music in front of a crowd.”
“I used to be a very nervous performer. I was terrified, and slowly I’ve been able to overcome that fear and I don’t get it anymore. I just walk out there and it feels natural to me.”
Beyond his musical achievements, Le Bon has been an energetic advocate for a number of organizations, together with the Blue Marine Foundation, which focuses on ocean conservation, and the Tall Ships Youth Trust, offering seafaring alternatives to deprived youth throughout the U.Okay. Le Bon’s love of crusing additionally led him to assist the Air Ambulance Service.
Known for Billboard Hot 100 hits like “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Rio,” and “Girls on Film,” Duran Duran’s journey spans the glam and grit of the Nineteen Eighties New Romantic scene to present-day stardom.
Their profession has seen them earn quite a few accolades, together with a Brit Award for Lifetime Achievement, two Ivor Novello Awards, two Grammys, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2022, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame lastly inducted Duran Duran.
In 2023, the band’s Halloween-themed album Danse Macabre grew to become a prime 10 hit on the Top Album Sales chart and peaked at No. 4 on the U.Okay. charts, marking one other excessive level for the band. This Halloween, they adopted up with a sold-out present at Madison Square Garden in New York and launched an prolonged version of Danse Macabre, accompanied by the live performance movie Secret Oktober.
From the early ’80s by at this time, Duran Duran has amassed a legion of followers with hits like “The Reflex,” “A View to a Kill,” and ’90s staples “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone.”
Their presence in popular culture stays plain—William’s late mom, Princess Diana, famously adored the band and was in a position to meet them at Prince’s Trust live performance in 1983 and once more on the 1985 premiere of the James Bond film A View to a Kill.
“She and I used to go to the same fitness club — Chelsea Harbour in London,” Simon Le Bon as soon as instructed The Times of the late princess.
“One day I was on the running machine. I jumped off because one of my shoelaces had come undone, and she wolf-whistled at me across the room, and yelled, like a brickie, ‘Nice legs! I’d recognize that bum anywhere!’ I was quite taken aback, actually, and quietly got back on the machine with a red face.”
On the tenth anniversary of Diana’s loss of life in 2007, Prince William and Prince Harry staged a memorial live performance for her at Wembley Stadium, reserving artists like Elton John, Kanye West, Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Bryan Ferry, Rod Stewart, Pharrell, and Duran Duran.
