Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey DBE was born in Cardiff, Wales in 1937 to a Nigerian father and an English mother. She started singing as a teenager. In 1959, she became the first Welsh person to obtain a number-one single with As I Love You in the UK Singles Charts. With a career spanning seven decades, Bassey is recognised as a legend of British popular music. She is famous for her renditions of several James Bond films, providing the iconic soundtracks to Goldfinger in 1964, Diamonds Are Forever in 1967, and Moonraker in 1979 as well as the hit Big Spender.
Bassey received the first award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the debut of the Brit Awards in 1977. In 1999, she was made a Dame for her services to entertainment and listed as one of the 100 Great Black Britons in 2003. Her song Goldfinger was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. Bassey has performed at both the late Queen’s Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee concerts in 2012. She is one of the best-selling female artists of all time with over 130 million records sold globally. Dame Shirley Bassey is the first solo female artist to be honoured with her own set of stamps from the Royal Mail in 2023. In 2024 she was made a Companion of Honour in the New Year Honours list.
Refs: Shirley Bassey – Wikipedia
Photo By Rob Mieremet – Nationaal Archief, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27738111
