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| Lulu in Eurovision, 1969 |
The Grandma has explained the story of Lulu, a British singer that won, for the UK, the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest with Boom Bang-a-Bang.
Before talking about Lulu, The Grandma has offered a new Cambridge Key English Test A2 Example to The Watsons.
Lulu Kennedy-Cairns (3 November 1948) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, actress, TV personality and businesswoman. She is noted for her powerful singing voice.
She is internationally known, but especially by UK audiences in the 1960s. Later in her career she had hits internationally with To Sir with Love from the 1967 film of the same name and with the title song to the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.
In European countries, she is also widely known for her Eurovision Song Contest 1969 winning entry Boom Bang-a-Bang, and in the UK for her 1964 hit Shout, which was performed at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie was born in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire, and grew up in Dennistoun, Glasgow, where she attended Thomson Street Primary School and Onslow Drive School. She lived in Gallowgate for a while before moving to Garfield Street, Dennistoun.
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| Lenny Kuhr, Frida Boccara, Massiel, Salomé & Lulu |
She has two brothers and a sister, and her father was a heavy drinker. Aged 14, she received the stage name Lulu from her future manager Marion Massey, who commented: Well, all I know is that she's a real lulu of a kid.
In 1964, under the wing of Marion Massey, she was signed to Decca Records. When she was only fifteen, her version of the Isley Brothers' Shout, credited to Lulu & the Luvvers and delivered in a raucous but mature voice, peaked at no. 7 on the UK charts.
Massey guided her career for more than 25 years, for most of which time they were partners in business, and Massey's husband Mark produced some of Lulu's recordings.
On 29 March 1969, she represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest performing the song Boom Bang-a-Bang, written by Peter Warne and Alan Moorhouse, the song chosen from a selection of six by viewers of her BBC1 variety series Happening for Lulu and on a special show hosted by Michael Aspel in which she performed all six one after another.
More information: All Music
One song, I Can't Go On..., written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, came last in the postcard vote but was later recorded by Cilla Black, Sandie Shaw, Polly Brown and Elton John himself as well as by Lulu. In Madrid, Lulu was accompanied by Sue and Sunny while the orchestra was conducted by Lulu's musical director Johnny Harris.
Boom Bang-a-Bang won, though three other songs, from Spain, (Vivo cantando by Salomé), the Netherlands, (De troubadour by Lenny Kuhr) and France, (Un jour, un enfant by Frida Boccara) tied with her on 18 votes each.
The rules were subsequently altered to prevent such ties in future years, but the result caused Austria, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Finland not to enter the 1970 contest. Lulu's song came out the best in sales, with German, French, Spanish and Italian versions alongside the original English.
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| Lulu after winning the Eurovision Song Contest |
In 1981 she joined other Eurovision winners at a charity gala held in Norway.
In 2009, she provided comment and support to the six acts shortlisted to represent the UK at Eurovision 2009 on BBC1 TV.
Just weeks before her 1969 Eurovision appearance, Lulu had married Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a ceremony in Gerrards Cross. Maurice's older brother Barry was opposed to their marriage as he believed them to be too young. Their honeymoon in Mexico had to be postponed because of Lulu's Eurovision commitment. Their careers and his heavy drinking forced them apart and they divorced in 1973, but remained on good terms.
In 1993, Lulu made a recording comeback with the single Independence, which reached no. 11 in the UK Singles Chart. This was the title track from the Independence album; all four singles released from this album reached the UK charts, as did two later singles released in 1994.
Now known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, her late mother's birth name before she was adopted by the McDonald family, in 2000 she was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth.
Her autobiography, published in 2002, was titled I Don't Want to Fight after the hit song she and her brother wrote with hit songwriter Steve DuBerry.
More information: Andrew Lloyd Webber
Boom Bang-a-Bang is a song recorded by British singer Lulu. The song was written by Alan Moorhouse and Peter Warne. It is best known as the British winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1969, held in Madrid.
It was the joint winner with three other entries: Salomé singing Vivo cantando for Spain, Lenny Kuhr singing De troubadour for the Netherlands, and Frida Boccara singing Un jour, un enfant for France.
The song was the second consecutive entry with a nonsense title to win the contest, after Massiel's triumph in 1968 with La La La, and became infamous in the comedy world -most notably inspiring Monty Python's Flying Circus to parody it with Bing Tiddle-Tiddle Bong. The Python parody song was part of the Europolice Song Contest sketch in the How To Recognize Different Parts of the Bod episode in 1970.
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| Lulu's Boom Bang-A-Bang |
The song was succeeded as the winner in 1970 by Dana singing All Kinds of Everything for Ireland.
Over two decades after its first release, the song was included on a blacklist of banned songs issued by the BBC during the 1991 Gulf War.
Boom Bang-A-Bang was also the name of a BBC One 1-hour programme made to celebrate 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2006.
Lulu also recorded the song in German, Italian and French, all also titled Boom Bang-a-Bang, but none were as successful as the English original. A Spanish version is also thought to have been recorded, but this has never been confirmed and whereas three of the other versions were included on the double CD To Sir, With Love-The Complete Mickie Most Recordings the fabled Spanish version was omitted, as was the German version, suggesting the version widely in circulation is in fact a cover by another artist and not by Lulu herself. A 7" single, released in Spain at the time, certainly seems to indicate that Lulu sang the song in Spanish herself.
More information: Digital Spy
Loud in my ear
Pounding away, pounding away
Won't you be mine?
Boom bang-a-bang-bang all the time.
Lulu
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