Slideshow: Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee

Joel Ryan / AP

Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60 years on the throne with veteran rockstars and huge crowds.

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Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET: LONDON - Elton John sang "I'm Still Standing," Stevie Wonder crooned "Isn't She Lovely," and Paul McCartney sent "All My Loving" as musical royalty celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's 60-year reign with a concert outside Buckingham Palace on Monday. But the joy was tempered by news that the queen's husband, Prince Philip, had been hospitalized with a bladder infection.

About 12,000 contest winners watched the live performances as part of four days of nationwide celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee marking the queen's 60 years on the throne. Members of the royal family, including Charles, his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, and Princes William and Harry sat in a royal box to watch the show. The queen wore a gold lame cocktail dress under a dark cape. 

Monday’s concert also featured Ska band Madness singing 1980s hit "Our House" from the roof of the 775-room palace. The band changed the lyrics to use proper English: "Our house, in the middle of one's street."

It's official: Twitter kills the Queen's English

The veteran entertainers seemed most popular. The crowd roared along to Cliff Richard's, "Congratulations," and cheered Bassey singing — fittingly — "Diamonds are Forever." Prince Harry could be seen singing along — "Why, why why?" — as Tom Jones belted out "Delilah," while Prince William and his wife Kate joined in on John's "Crocodile Rock."

McCartney closed the concert playing "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" on a Union Jack guitar before the queen took the stage with her family.

Palace officials said the prince, who will turn 91 on Saturday, was taken to the King Edward VII Hospital in London from Windsor Castle on Monday as a precaution and will remain under observation for a few days.

As the Diamond Jubilee show ended, Prince Charles took the stage and encouraged concertgoers to make some noise for his father. The crowd responded with a roar and chants of "Philip."

The heir to the throne paid tribute to his mother, addressing her as "Your Majesty — Mummy" and leading the crowd in three cheers for the monarch.

Did the queen enjoy the music? Her musical tastes are a mystery, and she appeared to be wearing yellow ear plugs as she observed the concert, according to The Associated Press. According to The Guardian newspaper, the only song the queen has ever been known to request is "Some Enchanted Evening" from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "South Pacific."

Despite the dreary weather, organizers said more than one million people gathered on the banks of the Thames to watch the 86-year-old monarch glide past in a barge decorated with flowers, with her closest family at her side.

In the flotilla were kayaks, rowboats, barges and the Motor Torpedo Boat 102 on which the Allied Forces commander, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspected warships before the 1944 D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France. 

Peter Jeary, NBC News

Despite heavy rain, spectators lined up from dawn on Sunday to get the best view of the River Thames flotilla.

A gloomy, gray - and great - day for the UK

All were decorated with flags and banners, making a colorful spectacle harking back to Tudor times when river pageants regularly took place for royal festivities.

Six participants in the pageant were treated in hospitals for exposure to the cold and wet, and medics attended to about 40 spectators along the river.

Slideshow: Britain honors Queen Elizabeth II with Diamond Jubilee

Her Royal Highness celebrates 60 years on the throne.

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After the concert, a network of 4,000 beacons were lit across the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, leading into Tuesday, the final day of the extended holiday weekend.

The small Pacific island nation of Tonga claimed the honor of lighting the first beacons. Another was scheduled to be lit in Kenya at the Treetops Hotel, where Elizabeth was informed of her father's death in 1952, making her the queen.

The jubilee celebrations will conclude on Tuesday with a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral, a carriage procession along the Mall avenue, a fly past and farewell wave from the royal family to crowds gathered in front of Buckingham Palace – events that will be covered live on a special edition of NBC’s TODAY.

Secret donors, foreign firms bankroll UK’s Diamond Jubilee celebration

The jubilee event have underlined broad support for the queen in Britain, where she is riding high in opinion polls and is seen as a symbol of service, stability and national unity.

The displays of pomp and pageantry also gave a lift to many at a time of economic austerity and spending cuts, and boosted confidence ahead of the summer Olympic Games.

BBC, via Twitter

British tabloid newspaper The Sun marked the wet festivities with this headline on Monday.

Support for the royal family is not universal however, with views ranging from indifference - around two million Britons traveled abroad to benefit from the extra days off - to outright opposition.

Queen's critics face uphill battle during jubilee

"Her achievement is just staying alive, doing little and saying less," Graham Smith, head of campaign group Republic, told Reuters on Sunday.

His group estimates that the royal family, which officially sets taxpayers back between 30 and 40 million pounds a year, in fact costs closer to 200 million pounds when security and travel are included.

Queen Elizabeth is only the second monarch to mark 60 years on the throne, after her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria reached the milestone in 1897. She is also on course to become the longest-serving British sovereign in 2015.

NBC News, msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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It was, perhaps fittingly, a typical British summer's day.

As I rode my bike toward Tower Bridge, the rain came tipping down from heavy gray skies and poured over me and the million other people who had crowded through London's streets to line the banks of the River Thames.

But this was no ordinary summer's day. It's been more than 300 years since a huge pageant of ships sailed down the river — 60 years since Elizabeth became our queen.

Queen leads giant Diamond Jubilee flotilla on London's rainy Thames

A thousand ships, stretching seven miles long, led by dozens of rowing boats pushing their way through the choppy waters. A floating bell tower carrying the royal jubilee bells, their peals answered by church belfries all along the route. Little ships that had courageously evacuated Allied forces from under Nazi bombs at Dunkirk more than 70 years ago. History sailing in front of your eyes.

Boats with orchestras, trumpeters, bagpipes, choirs and drums. Steamships sounding their horns. Artillery firing a royal salute from the Tower of London. And a bedraggled throng of spectators all along both river banks, cheering and singing — Union flags in one hand; umbrellas in the other.

Then the royal barge, fittingly majestic, sailing by under the raised wings of Tower Bridge. I could barely make out the queen on board. But she was there, waving that stiff little royal wave of hers and doing what she always does so well: getting on with it.

I confess I'm not much of a monarchist — the monarchy has always seemed to me to reinforce the sense of privilege and class that still divides this country. But as we both get older (she's 86; I'm not) my views get softer. And I have to hand it to the old lady: After 60 years doing the job, seven days a week, she's surely not a quitter.

In pictures: Britain honors Queen Elizabeth II with Diamond Jubilee

As I squeezed my way past the crowds and the renovated warehouses that once crammed the streets by the river, I passed thousands of families making their way to the water's edge. Kids in buggies who had no idea what was going on but who will no doubt gaze at the photos in years to come and be glad they were there. Grandparents who remember the queen's coronation in 1953, and have grown old with her.

And thousands of visitors who saw the worst of the weather and the best of British history and tradition on the same day.

Secret donors, foreign firms bankroll UK’s Diamond Jubilee celebration

As I got close to the site of our broadcast, I came to a bottleneck of spectators. In the road, and slowing them down, a group of anti-royal protesters carrying placards and making speeches. Police were standing quietly by.

"It's a good day for the queen," shouted one demonstrator, "and a bad day for democracy."

Not quite, I thought. It's been a good day for both. Good that the queen should celebrate 60 years of service to her country. And good for democracy that we live in a country where people are free to disagree.

My favorite moment? Our correspondent who — after outlining the amazing pageant of a thousand ships that sailed down the river with the queen in the pouring rain — was asked what else Her Majesty was going to do today. As if that wasn't enough.

No, it was most surely not an ordinary summer's day.

And you have to hope, don't you, that after 60 years on the throne, the queen is taking the rest of the day off?

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Updated at 3:52 p.m. ET: It was Queen Elizabeth I who launched 1,000 ships down the River Thames in the 16^th century. The same number of boats made their way through London on Sunday — not an armada for battle, but a fanfare of pageantry celebrating the 60-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.

Black clouds, gusting winds and often torrential rain — the hallmarks of a British summer outdoor event — were unable to darken the magnificence of the display, although several people were treated for hypothermia.

Hundreds of thousands gathered on the banks of the Thames to watch the queen glide past in a barge decorated with flowers, with her closest family at her side, including grandson Prince William and his wife, Kate.

Peter Jeary, NBC News

Rain-soaked spectators arrived early to get a good view.

The 1,000-strong flotilla was met by spectators lining 11 of the bridges that cross the river in the city center. Some of those had arrived in a chilly, miserable dawn to make sure they had the perfect view.

Eileen Scott, 67, from Southampton, England, had celebrated the start of Elizabeth's reign as a young girl. "We haven't had a pageant for so long,” she said. "I was here for the coronation. I was 8, and it was a dreadful day like this one."

In pictures: Britain honors Queen Elizabeth II with Diamond Jubilee

Erica Vey, a Royal Air Force veteran and amputee, was in the front row of spectators. "It is typically English to wait for hours on for something; we have the patience,” she said.

In the flotilla were kayaks, rowboats, barges and the Motor Torpedo Boat 102 on which the Allied Forces commander, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill inspected warships before the 1944 D-Day invasion of Nazi-occupied France. 

All were decorated with flags and banners, making an extraordinarily colorful spectacle harking back to Tudor times, when river pageants regularly took place for royal festivities.

'Look! I've got the queen!'
In the distance, the dull waters of the Thames were slowly developing color as the formation of 1,000 boats of different shapes, sizes and colors approached Westminster bridge. Music also accompanied mass displays enhancing the atmosphere of the Diamond Jubilee celebration.

Bands on boats played "Pomp and Circumstance"; at one stage, a large vessel played Simon and Garfunkel's "Scarborough Fair." Then an Indian bagpipe band played Asian renditions of "When the Saints Go Marching In," complemented by Bollywood-style dancing that prompted those watching on the bridge to join in the singing.

After three "hip hip hoorays," a woman started screaming out the national anthem, which spread over the whole bridge. Then the queen approached in the middle of the flotilla aboard the Spirit of Chartwell, where she stood and waved. 

There was a frenzy to snap pictures before the vessel  passed the bridge. Two women excitedly compared photographs: 

"Look! I've got the queen!"

"Wow!  I don't, but I have Will and Kate."

"You should give me your email. I'll email them to you."

Organizers say Sunday's river pageant was the largest of its kind in 350 years — when a similar spectacle was held for King Charles II and his consort, Catherine of Braganza, in 1662. 

Although the queen is still head of state in 16 countries from Australia and Canada to tiny Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean, Britain is now a shadow of its former imperial self. 

A much-needed joyous celebration
Historians and commentators say the pomp and spectacle of British royal occasion gives the country a sense of national pride at a time when the economy is in recession and people face deep austerity measures. 

Secret donors, foreign firms bankroll UK’s Diamond Jubilee celebration

Across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, street parties were being held to mark the occasion. Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, dropped in on one in central London before the pageant, joining in a rousing rendition of the national anthem. 

The government hopes the festivities will mark the start of a summer of revelry capped off by the Olympic Games in London, raising the public's spirits and its own poll ratings. 

However, economists have warned that the extra public holidays will hit Britain's already ailing economy, potentially prolonging a recession. 

The celebrations come as polls show overwhelming backing for the monarchy, which has overcome a slump in the 1990s following marital infidelities and the death of the hugely popular Princess Diana in a 1997 Paris car crash. 

Last year's wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton was proof of such enduring appeal, with the ceremonial extravaganza attracting a global audience of up to 2 billion people. 

However, not everyone in London was cheering. The small yet vocal Republican movement planned a protest during the flotilla, saying the jubilee was "a celebration of inherited power and privilege, and those celebrations have no place in a modern democracy." 

Celebrations continue Monday with a pop concert outside Elizabeth's London residence, Buckingham Palace, where Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder will be among the acts. The band Madness is set to take to the roof of the famous landmark to belt out the hit song "Our House." 

Chiara Francavilla and Peter Jeary of NBC News in London and Alastair Jamieson of msnbc.com contributed to this report.

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LONDON -- It will be a weekend of celebration across Britain. Not least among suffering retailers, who amid the country's double-dip recession will be cheering as loudly as the flag-flying crowds lining London's River Thames to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.

But despite the estimated 823 million pounds ($1.25 billion) expected to be spent by revellers this weekend, British businesses have proved stingy when it comes to raising the funds for the piece de resistance: Sunday's advertising-free pageant will include a three-hour flotilla featuring more than 1,000 boats.

The committee responsible for the event earlier this year tried entice British companies into contributing to its 10.5 million pound ($16 million) cost. But with a ban on advertising on either the riverside or on participating boats, it proved to be a difficult sell and organizers had to draw on contributions from foreign companies and individuals to make up the shortfall.

Lord Salisbury, the chairman of Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, reportedly said that he did not wish to empty the public purse.  

Instead organizers had to approach a number of non-British companies to pay for the costs, which include 7,000 stewards as well as festivities planned in Battersea Park.

'Six-figure checks'
Official supporters include American oil company Chevron, advertising company AMV BBDO and Boris Johnson, who is London's New York-born mayor. An additional 20 publicly listed donors have contributed to the tab.

Read more stories from The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Companies from America, Australia and the Far East have reportedly signed "six-figure checks" as contributions.

However, the British public will never know the full list of organizations that contributed to the funding as the Jubilee Foundation only lists the donors who wish to be named.

Among this list there are 14 U.K. individuals and companies and six foreign individuals and businesses. This list includes American banking giants Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and Japanese brokering house Nomura Group.

According to a Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant spokeswoman, there are "a considerable number of contributors who have made donations and do not wish to be named."

More Diamond Jubilee coverage from Britain's ITV News

Other events, where companies are allowed to market themselves, have proved more popular to companies.

The biggest commercial boon will be the Queen's Jubilee Picnic, to be held in the gardens of Buckingham Palace on Monday and attended by 13,000 guests. 

Supermarket giant Waitrose may be providing 10,000 free hampers for the Jubilee Picnic but its commercial gains are already pouring in.

Waitrose has predicted its strawberry sales will increase seven-fold and "sales of Elderflower cordial have been soaring by an incredible 1,000 percent."

A survey by Moneysupermarket.com also suggests Britons will spend 823 million pounds ($1.26 billion), or an average of 40 pounds ($61) per person on Jubilee-related purchases.

However, not everything is in the best possible taste. Diamond Jubilee sick bags are among the items being sold.

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