The Royal iPod Has Been Spotted For The First Time

Vogue published a fun article today about Queen Elizabeth’s iPod, and we have visual evidence to confirm the royal iPod is in fact real. Apparently, the Queen bought an iPod back in 2005. But no one saw it. Vogue searched through over 25,000 photos of the Queen from 2005 to 2007.  There was a photo of the Queen with an iPad, but the iPod has remained a mystery—until now.

The Royal iPod

In the photo published by Vogue, Queen Elizabeth is at her home in Balmoral Castle. And in the background, what looks like an iPod Classic is docked into a speaker. As the story goes, when the Obamas visited the Queen in 2009, they gave her an iPod as a dignitary gift. The device was loaded up with songs and video footage from the Queen’s 2007 trip to the U.S.

Gifts between leaders and diplomats is a long-held custom, and is meant to represent the relationship between the countries. Queen Elizabeth gives framed pictures of herself, and another gift the Obamas gave her at one time was a photo album filled with pictures of the Queen meeting with U.S. presidents.

The iPod in the photo is most likely the one that the Obamas gave the Queen, and not the one she bought in 2005. So what kind of music would be on the iPod?

Now for the fun part: What do we think Queen Elizabeth does with her music player?

Ingrid Seward, author of the upcoming book, My Husband & I, about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s marriage, told Vogue: “The Queen is a big fan of musicals, traditional hymns, and Scottish ballads, and even the Beach Boys’s songs, especially ‘California Girls.’ She also likes Elton John and all kinds of military music.

Now we have finally have closure, and as Vogue points out, “it never really mattered—especially now, as both countries are mired in political turmoil. But it did provide some closure, some comic relief. And some nostalgia: for a less serious time when silly stories still made the papers.”