Lulu

Biography & Overview

Lulu Kennedy-Cairns (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie; 3 November 1948) is a Scottish singer, songwriter, actress and television personality whose career has spanned six decades. Her debut single, a cover version of The Isley Brothers song "Shout", reached the top ten of the UK Singles Chart in 1964. In 1967, she rose to international prominence after appearing in the film To Sir, with Love, singing the theme song, the melody written by Mark London, which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States for five consecutive weeks and became America's biggest-selling single of 1967.
During the 1960s, she achieved another five top-ten hits on the UK Singles Chart, including "Boom Bang-a-Bang", which won the Eurovision Song Contest 1969. From 1968–1973, she hosted her own television shows including Lulu's Back in Town (1968), Happening for Lulu (1968–1969) and It's Lulu (1970–1973). With a sought after powerful voice, she was commissioned in 1974 to perform the title song for the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. In 1993, Lulu had her first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart: "Relight My Fire", a collaboration with Take That.
In 2002, she achieved her most recent top-ten entry on the UK Singles Chart when her collaboration with Irish singer Ronan Keating, "We've Got Tonight", peaked at number four. She has released 15 studio albums, with Together (2002), being her highest-charting, peaking at number two on the Scottish albums charts and number four on the UK albums chart. The album was subsequently certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000 Birthday Honours and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to music, entertainment and charity.