Elton John, Not the Spice Girls, Is Set to Be Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Royal Wedding Performer

With Meghan Markle and Prince Harry‘s royal wedding this Saturday approaching closer and closer, we’re finally starting to get some real details about the upcoming spectacle. Just a couple of days before it’s all set to take place, for example, it’s looking pretty likely that Elton John will perform for the newlyweds—at least according to TMZ’s “sources close to Elton.” (The news comes less than a week after the months of speculation that the Spice Girls would instead be the ones to nab that role seemingly came to an abrupt end.)

The sources are still unclear on whether John will play earlier in the day at St. George’s Chapel, the 14th-century venue where the couple has chosen to hold their ceremony, rather than at the usual Westminster Abbey, or later on in the night at the reception that’ll follow, where phones and TV cameras are forbidden. Still, if all goes according to plan, John, who’s lately been keeping busy collaborating with Beyoncé and playing his farewell tour, will follow in the footsteps of Ellie Goulding, who performed at the last royal wedding, which saw Kate Middleton and Prince William party until three in the morning.

Whereas Goulding is mostly friends with the younger royals—she recently took a trip to the desert with Princess Beatrice—John’s history with the family goes back a bit further. He was particularly close with Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, with whom he worked closely in the ’80s and ’90s to draw attention to, and fund-raise to combat, the AIDS crisis. Upon her death in 1997, that close bond between the pair ended up stretching over to Prince William and Prince Harry as he helped them through their grief. (Prince Harry has in fact already seen John perform at a royal ceremony, seeing as John played his song “Candle in the Wind” at her funeral in 1997.)

As TMZ points out, the performance would explain why John rescheduled the shows he’d planned to play this weekend in Las Vegas due to a “scheduling conflict,” thought that was in fact announced months ago, suggesting that John either knew about—or wanted to make it clear he was available for—the royal performance. Whether he ends up being the lucky one, though, one thing’s for sure: The audience won’t include the two Mels of the Spice Girls, whom the wedding planners appear to have snubbed, nor Markle’s father, Thomas Markle Sr.—another thing that’s finally been confirmed after a days-long roller coaster of press.

Related: Two Spice Girls Snubbed in Royal Wedding Guest Planning