Cilla Black

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Cilla Black (1970)

Cilla Black , OBE (born Priscilla Maria Veronica White ; born May 27, 1943 in Liverpool , † August 1, 2015 in Estepona , Spain ) was a British pop singer and television presenter . She was one of the stars of the Liverpool Merseybeat scene .

Artistic career

Priscilla White grew up with her parents and three brothers in one of Liverpool's depressing Docklands. After completing her school education, she took up an apprenticeship as a secretary and then worked in this profession. Her interest in pop music was first expressed in her passion for collecting records and through regular visits to music clubs. She made her first appearances in front of an audience at Liverpool's Iron Door Club, where she appeared as an amateur singer with various bands. During performances at the Cavern Club , she met the Beatles . John Lennon then made Beatles manager Brian Epstein aware of the talent of the young singer. He recommended her to George Martin , the producer of the record company Parlophone , who made sure that Priscilla White got a record deal under the stage name Cilla Black.

On September 27, 1963, Cilla Black's first single was released by Parlophone. The title of the A-side Love of the Loved , written by Beatles members Lennon and Paul McCartney , only reached a rather disappointing number 35 in the British hit lists. With her second single Anyone Who Had a Heart , a cover version of Dionne Warwick's Burt Bacharach hit , Cilla Black reached the top of the UK charts for the first time on February 21, 1964. She was able to repeat this success with You're My World just three months later. With that she had laid the foundation stone to become one of the most successful pop singers in Great Britain. By 1993 she made the British charts with a total of 20 songs. Of these, 18 were released by Parlophone, after which Cilla Black moved to the record company EMI in 1974 after a year-long break . In addition to her single successes, she brought seven LPs into the album charts by 1993. After her first domestic record success, singles by Cilla Black were released in the USA from 1964. She reached the US charts with three titles, the most successful being You're My World at number 26. In September 1978 Black's last single was released for EMI. In the decades that followed, she sporadically recorded records. So in 1985 the album Surprisingly Cilla , in 1990 the children's song collection Cilla's World and in 1993 Through the Years .

As early as 1967, Cilla Black had found a new field of activity in television. With her variety show Cilla she reached audience numbers between 18 and 22 million by the time it was discontinued in 1976. After the television shows Surprise Surprise (1984-2001) and Blind Date (1985-2003), she had risen to become the most highly paid television entertainer in Great Britain. In 2013, the British television station ITV recognized Black's successful television career with the TV show The One & Only Cilla Black , on which she herself appeared alongside presenter Paul O'Grady .

In 1968 Black was offered to represent England at the Eurovision Song Contest in his own country; However, since she did not expect enough chances of a good placement, she turned it down. When she was asked again in 1970 for the ESC in the Netherlands, she had to cancel because she was pregnant at the same time. After that, those responsible no longer came up to Black.

In 1993, Cilla Black was inducted into the British Order of the British Empire as an officer . For her 50 years of service in the entertainment industry, she received the 2014 Academy TV Prize "Special Award".

Private

Bronze statue of Cilla Black in Liverpool

Cilla Black was married to her manager Bobby Willis for 30 years; he died of lung cancer in 1999. They had three sons, Ben, Robert and Jack.

Cilla Black often lived in her home in Estepona and owned other apartments in London , Buckinghamshire and Barbados .

According to the Spanish police, Cilla Black died of natural causes.

A bronze statue of Cilla Black was unveiled in Liverpool on January 16, 2017. The statue, about six feet tall, is on Matthew Street, where the original entrance to the Cavern Club was. The statue was donated by the singer's three sons.

Discography

literature

  • Cilla Black: Step inside . Dent. London 1985, ISBN 0-460-04695-0 , autobiography.
  • Frank Laufenberg: Rock & Pop Lexicon . Econ Taschenbuch Verlag 1998, ISBN 3-612-26206-8 , Volume 1, p. 146.
  • Günter Ehnert (Ed.): Hit Records British Chart Singles 1950-1965 Taurus Press 1995, ISBN 3-922542-32-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Died: Cilla Black . Der Spiegel 33/2015, August 8, 2015, p. 125.
  2. ↑ Gerard Couzens, Halina Watts, Claire Rutter: Cilla Black dead: Legendary TV presenter and singing star dies aged 72 . Daily Mirror , Aug. 3, 2015.
  3. ↑ Great Britain: Singer Cilla Black died . Euronews , 2nd August 2015.
  4. ↑ www.cillablack.com: Fast facts about Liverpool's new Cilla Statue. Retrieved January 18, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Black, Cilla
ALTERNATIVE NAMES White, Priscilla Maria Veronica (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer and television presenter
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 2015
Place of death Estepona , Spain