Front Row: Surprise superstar guest leaves rock star flustered and another’s scandal comes back to haunt him

Front Row is a new weekly column on nine.com.au bringing you behind the scenes of some of the Aussie entertainment industry’s biggest parties, premieres, and more. Got a tip? Email us at frontrow@nine.com.au.

This week, Front Row got our boogie on at one of the best events in the London calendar – and while the vibes were high and music was fine, we were most entertained by the lead singers, but not in the way they’d hope!

Shania Twain leaves rocker blushing at own gig

Frontmen typically exude charisma, but when Mumford & Sons took to the stage at the British Summer Time music festival in Hyde Park, Marcus Mumford was more of a bumbling fanboy than magnetic rocker.

Mumford’s actress wife Carey Mulligan proudly filmed the 65,000-person singalongs from the artist’s box in the centre of the field, dressed casually in a light blue linen shirt, a navy cap and black sunglasses.

Even as she filmed concert footage in landscape, Mulligan was effortlessly cool in a way her husband was definitely not.

After an epic karaoke session to songs like Little Lion Man, I Will Wait and The Cave, an unexpected guest left Mumford dancing a jig and blushing profusely on stage.

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After duets with Hozier and Stella Lefty, he welcomed country music icon Shania Twain – she’d raced over from Wembley Stadium where she was the opening act (diabolical!) for Harry Styles’ record 12-show residency on his Together, Together tour.

“We’ve got another cheeky surprise for you,” Mumford announced, adding, “It was a surprise for us too actually… Let’s just give it up for Shania Twain”.

The pair performed Here, a duet originally recorded with country music star Chris Stapleton, before a rendition of Twain’s iconic hit Man, I Feel Like A Woman.

It wasn’t just the crowd that was impressed, much – but the giddy frontman too, who appeared to be floating outside his body as he played the tambourine and danced alongside Twain, who complimented his… uh, plain blue shirt, with something a little more showy, a black bodysuit and knee high boots.

Mumford clearly needed a moment to regain his composure after she left the stage.

His Cheshire cat smile was visible even from the very back of the packed park – Front Row was especially amused to overhear fans commenting how “cute” it was.

“Shania Twain is my f---ing hero, ladies and gents,” he told the crowd, who we reckon had figured that out by this point.

“You don’t understand, you don’t get it. This is a very big deal for me.

“And guess what? She played Wembley Stadium tonight, and she’s here. That is gangster.”

As he tried, and failed, to regain his frontman rock star aura before the finale of the night, Mumford again sweetly referenced his disbelief.

Between their homecoming after a world tour, England’s World Cup prospects and Shania bloody Twain, it was a lot to wrap his head around!

“I’m lost for words tonight. All I’m thinking about is the football and Shania Twain,” he laughed. “If all of you mother f---ers keep showing up, we’ll keep going.”

A-list couple put scandal behind them – but the crowd have not

Mulligan wasn’t the only star Mrs in the artist’s box over the second weekend of the annual music festival.

A day earlier, former Victoria’s Secret model Behati Prinsloo was seen blowing kisses to her husband, Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, as he played on-stage.

Levine belted out a number of the band’s biggest hits before dedicating Love Somebody to his wife.

The public display of affection prompted a number of fans around Front Row to recall the cheating scandal that plagued the couple in 2022.

Who can blame them, really? We, too, think of his leaked DMs, including his truly inspired “that body of yours is absurd” line more regularly than we’d care to admit (Levine denied a woman’s claims of a physical affair but issued a public apology to his wife for his “poor judgement”, saying he “crossed a line” in speaking to other women flirtatiously).

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Perhaps it was a little on the nose that the band then performed Girls Like You, with the celebrity-filled 2018 music video playing behind them. Famous faces like JLo, Elizabeth Banks, Tiffany Haddish and Millie Bobby Brown popped up on the screens, along with a few more recently ‘cancelled’ stars like Ellen DeGeneres.

Yeah, that one hasn’t aged well!

Levine wasn’t worried about any of that though, as he spotted one of his daughters watching from the side of the stage and quickly lay down to say hello and give her a little kiss.

Like Mumford & Sons, Maroon 5 also marvelled at having 65,000 fans join them for the outdoor concert – 21 years after their slightly less successful first London gig.

“Ladies and gentlemen, to see all you people here tonight is an incredible incredible thing,” Levine told the crowd.

“We first came here in 2005 and played The Barfly – there weren’t that many people there, probably 40, if we were lucky.”

Now THAT is absurd!