Lulu performing on stage, during the 69th Miss World annual final at the ExCel London (Yui Mok/PA)
Lulu performing on stage, during the 69th Miss World annual final at the ExCel London (Yui Mok/PA)
Best known for her enduring cover of Shout, Scottish star Lulu has been made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
The singer, 72, has turned her hand to musical theatre, television and more across a six-decade career and is recognised for services to music, entertainment and charity.
Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie in Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire, and is also known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns.
She shot to fame aged just 15 when Shout, a cover of the Isley Brothers track, became a hit.
The song would go on to become her signature tune.
In 1969 she represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Her song Boom Bang-A-Bang was the joint winner that year as she shared the prize with France, Netherlands and Spain with 18 points apiece.
Later she recorded the theme song with the same name for 1974’s 007 film The Man With The Golden Gun but she later said during an interview that she had not thought much of the track, adding: “I think mine was probably the worst one ever. Mine was not a great song.”
She collaborated with Take That on Relight My Fire in 1993 and in 2016 was announced as a guest judge for new BBC One Saturday night series Let It Shine, a search for the lead cast of a show based on Take That’s music.
She teamed up with the group’s songwriter and singer Gary Barlow, as well as judges Martin Kemp and Dannii Minogue, in a guest role to help choose the best contestants for parts in the musical.
Lulu received an OBE for her services to music in 2000.
She said of her medal at the time that it was “a great honour and was a real surprise. The Prince (of Wales) apologised that it had taken so long. He told me I had found the secret of eternal youth.”
She added: “I’m not giving up just because I have got this. I hope to go on until I die.”
In 2017 Lulu announced she would be taking on the biggest tour of her career, called All About The Music Tour, which spanned 40 dates around the UK, in October and November of that same year.
In 2018 she joined the cast of 42nd Street playing the lead role Dorothy Brock and the next year toured with Take That.