Shirley Bassey
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Dame Shirley Bassey DBE |
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Shirley Bassey (1971)
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Shirley Veronica Bassey |
| Born |
8 January 1937 Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1953–present |
| Labels | |
Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey, DBE (born 8 January 1937) is a Welsh singer whose career began in the mid-1950s, best known for recording the theme songs to the James Bond films Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979).
In 2000, Bassey was made a Dame for services to the performing arts. In 1977 she received the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist in the previous 25 years. Bassey has been called "one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century."
Shirley Veronica Bassey was the sixth and youngest child of Henry Bassey and Eliza Jane Start, and was born on Bute Street in Tiger Bay (Butetown), Cardiff, Wales. She grew up in the adjacent community of Splott. At the time, Tiger Bay was one of the largest ports in the world and was very multi-ethnic. Her father was Nigerian, and her mother was English, from Teesside. Two of her mother's four children from previous relationships lived in the Bassey household. Bassey's mother listed her first husband, Alfred Metcalfe, as her own father in the registry of her marriage to Henry Bassey, giving rise to speculation that this marriage was bigamous in the absence of a prior divorce. Eliza and Henry's second child died in infancy, so Shirley was born into a household of three sisters, two half-sisters, and one brother.
Teachers and students alike at Moorland Road School noticed Bassey's strong voice, but gave the pre-teen little encouragement: "...everyone told me to shut up. Even in the school choir the teacher kept telling me to back off till I was singing in the corridor!" A classmate recalled her singing the refrain 'Can't help lovin' that man of mine' from Show Boat with such feeling that she made their teacher uncomfortable. After leaving Splott Secondary Modern School at age 14, Bassey found employment at a factory while singing in public houses and clubs in the evenings and on weekends.
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