“She’s the Queen”: Mumford & Sons Reveal How Their Shania Twain Duet in London Came About

In a new interview, Mumford & Sons have paid tribute to Shania Twain and revealed how their momentous on-stage link-up came about at BST Hyde Park 2026 earlier this summer.

Marcus Mumford, the band's frontman, has been open about his longstanding admiration for the ‘That Don't Impress Me Much’ hitmaker, with the British artist visibly - and endearingly - over the moon when Shania emerged on-stage at Hyde Park this July.

During a conversation with Cody Alan for SiriusXM's The Highway, Mumford & Sons stress how kind Shania was throughout her time at the show, and how generous it was of her to spring across London after her opening set for Harry Styles at Wembley Stadium, to join the folk troubadours for a couple of songs during their encore.

Marcus begins by recalling how the band has always enjoyed covering ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’ - one of the songs they performed with Shania at Hyde Park, alongside ‘Here’ - and how they first learned to play it while standing in as their own openers.

He reflects, “That's our fun song to play in soundcheck. Yeah. When we're sort of on the road, fifth show of the week, bit bored, I'll get a guitar out and bam, bam, bam, and then we'll just jam it in soundcheck. We've been doing that for 15 years or something”.

Marcus goes on, “We opened for ourselves once actually and played that song...It was one of my favourite shows ever. We had a band cancel last minute. It's happened twice, but the second time it happened, we couldn't call anyone to come in last minute, so we dressed up in costumes - you know, inflatable dinosaurs, I think I was. It was a lot of spandex, and we learnt a bunch of covers, and we just were a cover band, and we opened for ourselves. We were called ‘The Sun Never Sets on the Cool Kids’. And we played [‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman!’]”.

Marcus continues, “And then we did it actually on the road. We did it with Lainey in New Orleans last year on this Train tour, and it was one of the songs that closed out the show. Did it with Noah Kahan in Burlington, which was fun. And so then it came to being in Hyde Park, and we knew she was down the street at Wembley with Harry Styles...for like 15 nights or whatever it was, and we called her up and said, “Is there any way, after you've finished your opening slot for Harry, if you could jump in a car and be at Hyde Park by sort of 9:30? We'll be on-stage”.

He smiles as he remembers how she agreed to the unforgettable duet, “And she said, “Yeah, why don't you come to my hotel and we'll practice the songs?” So I showed up in her hotel with my guitar, and her lovely husband was there, and we ran the songs, and then she showed up on-stage, man, and she just blew everyone away”.

Marcus underlines how incredible Shania was to work with, citing this as a major bucket-list moment for him, “She is phenomenal. She's the queen, and that was a dream”.

Ben Lovett echoes his sentiments, highlighting how Shania was kind enough to stay behind after the show to say hello to the bands’ families and friends, “She spent the time [with us] after the show”, with Ted Dwayne sharing, “She was like the last one on-site”.

Lovett adds, “Everyone, all family and friends, and she just hung, and it felt like she wasn't doing it to gain anything. There was no favor being curried...She just is very happy [to do it]”.

It undoubtedly aligns with what you tend to hear about Shania, with the country trailblazer building a reputation for being as kind-hearted off the stage as she appears on it.

Mumford & Sons’ BST Hyde Park performance will go down as one of the most iconic in recent memory, partly because of Shania's appearance - along with Hozier and Stella Lefty - but also because of how the band captivated the crowd from start to finish.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that, as Mumford & Sons continue their foray into the country music space with link-ups with the likes of Chris Stapleton, one day we might see a studio duet with Shania. If that does come to fruition, you can rest assured that Marcus won't be able to contain his excitement - and why should he, when one of country's most revered legends is working her magic.