Shirley never looked back. And Michael Grade's nightmare had just begun. Discover the stories behind the songs in today's playlist. Sounds of the 60s with Tony Blackburn. Main content. Shirley Bassey's First Audition. Dame Shirley's talent has so far earned her over six decades of stardom. Just looking at the girl made me half decide to send her away and find someone else Past Television 73 titles Episodes.
See more. See fewer. Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off Estradilla: Huips! Happy Anniversary Mr. Het is weer zo laat! Stop de neutronenbom! Self titles. Episode The Man Who Changed the World. In , Bassey gave birth to another daughter, Samantha. Just as with her first child, she wouldn't name Samantha's father. Bassey married twice, to Kenneth Hume and Sergio Novak, but both marriages ended in divorce.
She was also estranged from her adopted son, Mark, for several years. The most difficult blow for Bassey was the death of her daughter, Samantha, in The death was considered an accidental drowning, but, in a interview, Bassey admitted she had doubts about that conclusion.
After receiving information that a convicted killer had stated he was involved with Bassey's daughter, the police reinvestigated Samantha's death in , but found no evidence of criminal involvement. Bassey was made a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire in It was another mark of distinction in a career that has seen her sell over million records.
Although she has a reputation as a diva, Bassey continues to be lauded for her unforgettable voice, and for her sex appeal. She even received a standing ovation at the Academy Awards for her performance of "Goldfinger. F rom a distance, Shirley Bassey could pass for a thirtysomething. She's wearing tight jeans with turn-ups, leopard-skin stilettos, a groovy green cap and an even groovier green knee-length hoodie-cardigan. She looks firm and fabulous. And yet, at the same time, it's surprising she's only Bassey has been around for ever.
She was the voice of James Bond movies four decades ago, had her own television show soon after, and was giving journalists, police officers and personal assistants hell before Naomi Campbell was a twinkle in the media's eye. We are in an old school hall — just Bassey, her pianist, manager, assistant and me — and she's rehearsing for the BBC's forthcoming Electric Proms show.
But this is like no rehearsal I've seen. This is the world's most intimate gig. She wiggles her bottom to Hey Big Spender's "Good looking, so refined" as she leans over the piano — conversationally, then suggestively — taps her feet, clicks her fingers, pouts those liquid lips and sings to the wall, which doubles up as a packed arena.
There is such poignancy as she sings Something, a song she has been performing for 38 years, into the empty space. Her hair is dark black with tiny sprigs of silver peeking from under the cap. She slows down Light My Fire to a torch song, improvises The Lady Is A Tramp with gorgeous abandon, reaches for one of the two bottles of water on the grand piano, takes a slug, and flaps her cardigan wings to cool herself down. I'm sitting with her assistant Jenny behind a table at the end of the room.
Jenny whispers to me that it's like being on The X Factor. Her manager shushes us, a look of panic in his eyes — Dame Shirley demands supreme focus. By the age of two, he had disappeared from her life — she has never been sure whether he was deported or simply returned to his seafaring ways. Shirley was the youngest of seven children brought up by her mother.
Her siblings were considerably older, and she was pretty much left to her own devices. At 15, she left school to work as a packer in a factory. In the evenings she sang in local pubs and working men's clubs. She was desperate to escape, to see the world, make something of herself. At 16, she was pregnant with her first daughter, Sharon — she has never named the father — but she didn't let this hold her back.
Two years on she was touring Britain's theatres, and by 19 she had released her first single. The rest is jewel-encrusted, feather-boa'd history. Fifty-three years on, she has sold an estimated m records, is one of Britain's most successful recording artists and holds the record for the longest span of top 40 hits by a woman 52 years.
And now Bassey is back. She has recorded The Performance, her first album of original material for 20 years, and it's wonderful.
At times her voice booms as we might expect, but there's also a more reflective mood. This is Dame Shirley looking back, totting up the years and the losses, checking out her legacy. Bassey rarely gives interviews, partly because she lives her life fiercely out of public view and partly, I suspect, because she's frightened of engaging too closely with her past. There have been many kiss-and-tells from disenchanted family members or former employees.
And there has been terrible tragedy: her first husband, Kenneth Hume , died following a drug overdose in they had already divorced — he was gay — and the coroner ruled his death accidental ; her year-old younger daughter, Samantha, was found dead, floating in the river Avon near the Clifton suspension bridge in — again police suggested it was accidental, even though she had been depressed, but having read Bassey's cuttings, I'm not sure that has ever eased the pain.
It's the day after the rehearsal and she's changing from outfit to outfit for the photo shoot. She's dressed in pink feathers and silver stilettos, playing Shirley Bassey. She holds her hands coquettishly above her head, dancing like the sultry silhouette in the classic James Bond opening sequence. Oh, my pants keep falling down. My jaw hurts.
She's eating chocolate cake with sour cream, tells me it's gorgeous, insists I have a plate, and asks her assistant for a Kleenex to clear up a blob of cream. I've been told I must call her Dame Shirley on all occasions, but I've got a feeling this is just more diva myth-making and we'll be on Just-Call-Me Shirley terms any second.
She smiles, graciously. Everybody enjoys making their own up. And my friends call me Dame! Do your closest friends call you Dame? Even my lawyer.
He just calls me Shirley. I never corrected him. Maybe he wants to be the only one who doesn't conform. It was at Glastonbury two years ago that she became known as DSB. Though, to be fair, there would have been few there who hadn't heard of her — even today's kids know her as the voice of the Bond theme songs Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker.
It's late afternoon and she's changed into a most un-Bassey-like outfit: grey trousers and black top. Is this the real, private you? I don't enjoy having my boobs exposed offstage.
They are for work. People expect to see me in the supermarket in my gown with the split thigh and boobs out. Unless I'm doing a commercial. She famously said, "Listen, baby, I sing for my supper. I bloody well don't have to cook it as well. Bassey lives in Monte Carlo. Yes, there's the tax she doesn't have to pay, but more important, it's easier to be private there. When she returns to Britain, she's shocked by the change. That's all we read in the papers and see on television.
We're an island, for God's sake.
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