Royal wedding: Ben E King, Etta James classics to bring an American flavour to Windsor Castle ceremony

Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir, who will be performing the soul classic Stand By Me at the royal wedding.

In among the Bach, Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams on the music program at today's Royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle, there will be a distinct soul flavour.

The order of service reveals the ceremony will include renditions of Stand By Me by American singer Ben E King as well as Amen/This Little Light of Mine by Etta James, in a tribute to Ms Markle's American roots.

King's soul classic, released in 1961, will be considered modern music compared to the traditional hymns that will also be sung by the Kingdom Choir at the ceremony.

More than 100,000 fans are expected to cram the narrow roads of Windsor ahead of the ceremony which begins at 11:00am on Saturday (local time).

The world's media has been gripped by the union of Harry, 33, sixth-in-line to the British throne, and Ms Markle, 36, a divorcee whose mother is African-American and father is white.

To some black Britons, the wedding personifies the breakdown of barriers and reveals a more modern Britain where background is no bar to even the most elite and traditional of institutions.

External Link: Stand By Me by Ben E King

Ms Markle, born and raised in Los Angeles, will enter the chapel unescorted, with her bridesmaids and page boys.

She will then walk to the quire, about halfway down the church and join heir-to the-throne Prince Charles to proceed to the altar where his son, Harry, waits.

What time does the Royal wedding start?

The service will be conducted by the Dean of Windsor with Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the Anglican Church, overseeing the exchange of vows.

A black United States bishop, Michael Bruce Curry, will give the wedding address, while Lady Jane Fellowes, sister of Harry's late mother Princess Diana, will deliver the reading.

In a sign of modernity for the royals, Harry will wear a ring while Ms Markle will not vow to obey her husband. Senior male British royals do not traditionally wear rings.

After the ceremony, the newlyweds are expected to greet some of the 1,200 members of the public invited into the castle grounds before starting a carriage procession through Windsor.

The prince and his new wife are not immediately leaving on honeymoon and will carry out their first official engagement as husband and wife next week.

Reuters/ABC

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