The Royal Wave # 2
February 11th, 2007 by Nadja
Last week the news popped that Princess Alexandra (formerly married to Danish Prince Joachim - youngest son of the reigning Queen) is going to marry her young lover:
The happy couple as shown on the website of Danish tv-station TV2 - more here…
The news spread instantly through sms’es and mails. And made everybody crash the news-sites for more details…
The tv and radio covered the news as well - but too late, too scheduled and too predictable to satisfy the roar of curiosity suddenly awoken in the Danes.
I then - inspired by Levende’s post on The royal wave and elaborating on my own reflexions on the shock waves that flood the world - recalled the first time the Princess was introduced to the Danes. It was in 1995. Those were the days when hardly anyone owned a cell-phone (and those who did couldn’t send sms’es) and the internet hadn’t become a household-name yet. Those were the days when everybody watched the tv-press-conferences from the engagement and (some…) bought the gossip-magazines. Those were the days when the Royal Family could still more or less control when to pop their big news.
Now - 12 years, a few royal divorces, a single-mom-Norwegian-crown-princess and a paparazzicaused death - later, the news of this semi-royal marriage spread through new channels we didn’t even know of then. In wavelike patterns…with tsunami-like strengh and speed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When in Hong Kong a few years ago I read an article on the ups and downs of the Hong Kong economy. The 90′ies were referred to as one huge party - and the marriage of Hong Kong-born business-executive Alexandra Manley to the Danish Prince was referred to as one of the highlights that made the Hong Kong-90′ies seem like a fairytale. The new millenium - on the other hand - left Hong Kong behind. While Shang Hai and the Chinese economy exploded, Hong Kong was left behind - “AND (the article ended) The Princess? She got divorced”.
Cities and economies have their wavy ups and downs too.
6 Responses to “The Royal Wave # 2”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Give this woman credit. She has the courage to follow her bliss. She marries into “royalty.” Falls from grace. Trusts her heart and makes the hero’s journey home. It’s the stuff of myths from American Indians to medieval European ballads and African story telling.Not something we believe in today, but a mythic hero’s journey, none the less. And that makes waves!
I live in Copenhagen and i HAVE been out of my flat lately. I HAVE been communicating and reading newspapers - but i did not get hit by that royal wave and i am very surprised. It makes me think of this lady i know - She succeeded in not hearing about the London tube terror bombing for a whole day and night… why are we hit by those waves and why are we not?
@ Jomi: Your question has made me think and rethink the recent events quite a bit. And I think that there are so many news-waves rolling at the same time, that if you miss the first ‘hit’ - when the news breaks - you may never realize that it’s rolling.
The news broke thursday noon (the Royal Family tends to always launch their news on the publishing-day of the weekly gossip-magazines - to tease them, I guess). One of the gossip-magazines actually had the unconfirmed rumour of the marriage on the front page, so the Royal Family were forced to act quickly . The official pressrelease hit the newswave at noon - and the sms’es and mails spread. And the tv and radio immediately followed up.
The next morning it was already old news - and since no newspaper or media wants to be too repetitive (allthough they often are) the tabloids to be very creative in the choice of words. In stead of writing the basics - such as “Princess Alexandra marries her young lover” or “Alexandra and Martin Jørgensen are getting married” the major Danish tabloid-paper referred to the Princess as ‘Fru Jørgensen’ (Mrs. Jørgensen - the very common surname of her husband to be - thus making her sound very unglamourous).
They could only do so assuming that everybody had already heard the news - thus adding a new point to story. But if someone - like you - hadn’t heard already heard the basics, they were left out.
If you’re not in the loop from the beginning, you might never get into the loop. And come to think of it that is the case with soap-operas, political debates and celebritygossip as well. If you follow them closely every little ripple is of major importance - if you don’t it takes a tsunami to catch your attention.
Am I the only one that have heard rumors that Aleandra have been married before her marrige to Prins Joacim?
Nope - hadn’t heard that one yet. But it was almost bound to be added to the list of wedding-rumours circling the city and the media these days…
[…] Og hvad betyder det så med en lille prinsesse, fremfor endnu en prins? Helt nøgternt set er det vildt heldigt for alle parter, at der er tale om en lille prinsesse denne gang. Det tager - ifølge opdragelsesguruen Sigrid Rise i et af BilledBladene op til den kongelige fødsel - et stort pres af Prins Christian, fordi der ikke på samme måde bliver sammenlignet mellem to børn af forskelligt køn (og vi husker jo alle, hvordan der i sin tid var meget snak om, at Joachim havde mere konge-potentiale end Frede…og de var jo også pseudotvillinger på sammen måde som Lilleprinsen og Miniprinsessen kommer til at blive).Det tager et voldsomt pres af kronprinsparret, der nu selv kan vælge, om de skal have flere børn og - hvis det bliver tilfældet - kan være lige glade med barnets køn. Havde der været tale om en dreng denne gang, ville der have været et vist folkekrav om en lille prinsesse. For der er bare meget mere royalt stof i en prinsesse. Flere kjoler, frisurer, dressurheste, smykker og alt det andet kongerøgelse og rygtebølger er gjort af. […]