Shirley Bassey: ‘I’ll miss my family this Christmas’
With a fabulous new album just out, recorded over lockdown in honour of her fans, Dame Shirley Bassey chats exclusively to Yours about making people smile, what keeps her strong, and how wonderful it was to meet her idol
Dame Shirley Bassey has always been in her element dressed in her trademark glamorous, sequinned gowns dazzling arena audiences with her incredible vocals. But away from the glamour and glitz of her showbusiness career, it’s family that matters most to her.
Like so many of us, Dame Shirley is facing a Christmas without seeing her loved ones.
The star, who lives in Monte Carlo, muses: “Christmas is a time for family, and I will miss mine very much this year; decorating the tree, listening to carols and eating turkey... I would have loved to have been with them – especially my great-granddaughter, who is growing up so fast.”
A normal Christmas, Dame Shirley explains, is always traditional. “We watch the Queen’s speech, then we play games and open presents. My all-time favourite Christmas song is Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”
Dame Shirley, who turns 84 on January 8, has lived in Monaco for many years but reveals she was alone
‘I hope through my words and music I have made a difference to someone’s life’ throughout lockdown. “Victoria, my lovely assistant, was putting food outside my door. Luckily I enjoy my own company but I really appreciate those around me.”
However, she has not been resting on her laurels. This month she is back with a stunning new album, I Owe It All To You, which she recorded in lockdown. “I wanted to say thank you to my fans and all who supported my career. Making people happy, seeing people stand up at my shows is the greatest thing in the world,” she smiles.
The album is her first in more than five years and the release includes brand new material written especially for her, as well as tracks to reflect her life and career. “I listened to many, many songs and I
chose the ones I connected with and liked best. They all feel very personal,” she says. One of those tracks is the epic Who Wants To Live Forever? by Queen. “Roger Taylor actually suggested this song for me a year or so ago. It’s emotive, I love it. And Almost Like Being In Love was a song that my friend Bruce Forsyth performed regularly.” Songwriter Don Black wrote the title song, I Owe It All To You. “Don has a gift of writing beautiful songs. The lyrics mirror exactly how I am feeling. It’s as if he found a way into my mind! This song is for my fans. I hope that somehow in my life, through my words and my music, I have made a difference to someone’s life.”
She admits that Covid-19 made it very difficult to make the new album. “We rehearsed in London in February, lockdown came in March, so rehearsals were suspended until June. Then we started rehearsing again in Monte Carlo with a crew operating under strict
‘Maybe I’m not meant to find love. But then, I had the voice. Maybe I’ll find love one day.’
coronavirus restrictions. The music was recorded in Prague and London, and the only place we found to record my voice was Lago Maggiore in Italy.”
The determination to record this latest album is typical of Dame Shirley. Her drive to succeed was powerful enough to propel her from a life of poverty and turmoil in the Tiger Bay area of Cardiff.
So did she have any idols growing up? “Judy Garland inspired me. When we met each other, years later, we became very good friends. How often do you get to meet your idol and then become best friends!” she exclaims.
But it wasn’t long before Dame Shirley was making her own headlines… a first recording contract aged 19 in 1956, a first No.1 in 1959 and on to worldwide hits.
Dame Shirley has lamented in the past that her enduring success has come at a price as she has not found lasting love, with two marriages ending in divorce. But it’s one she seems resigned to.
She says: “Maybe I’m not meant to find love. But then I had the voice. Maybe I’m going to find love one day and then I will never sing again!”
Her national treasure status was cemented in 2000 when she was made a Dame for Services to the Performing Arts and in June 2002, she was one of a prestigious line-up of artists who performed at the Queen’s 50th Jubilee Party at Buckingham Palace.
She is proud to be in an elite group of women honoured by the Queen and reveals with obvious delight: “I know plenty of Dames, as we had a group photograph requested by the Queen.”
Dame Joan Collins, 87, has been a great friend since the pair were young, and she was also close to the late Dame Cilla Black and both Joan and Cilla helped celebrate Shirley’s 70th birthday at Cliveden House.
As the years have gone by, Dame Shirley’s career has gone from strength to strength and there has never been any thought about retirement.
She muses, “I have stamina and I have always loved what I was doing. You have to love it.”
She certainly has. Who can forget her being helicoptered in to a soggy Glastonbury Festival in 2007, in a pink Julien Macdonald dress, feather boa and £3,000 diamanteencrusted wellies. Dame Shirley also loves to keep up the work of other musicians and artists and says she is a big Michael Bublé fan. So are there any standout memories? “I have so many. Singing at the Oscars in 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the James Bond movies was a dream. But the real stand-outs have to be when the Queen presented me with my Damehood, when France gave me the Legion D’Honneur, and when Cardiff honoured me with the Freedom of the City. They all meant so much to me.”
■ I Owe It All To You, Decca Records, out now