Lulu was photographed by John d Green at his Kensington studios on 3 October 1966 for Birds of Britain. She was seventeen at the time of the shoot. If you look carefully, you will see that John photographed Lulu inside a newspaper delivery bag, which was hanging over the shoulder of a man dressed in a dark suit.
Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, Lulu is well known in the US for the song “To Sir with Love” from the film of the same name and with the title song to the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. In Europe she is also known for her Eurovision Song Contest winning entry “Boom Bang-a-Bang” and in the UK for her 1964 hit “Shout”, which she performed at the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In 1964, at the age of just 15, Lulu signed to Decca Records where her version of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout” reached number 7 in the UK charts. Her following three singles failed to chart but over the rest of the decade Lulu’s career continued to thrive and by 1965 she had her own BBC television series. In 1969 she won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Boom Bang-a-Bang” – although Spain, the Netherlands and France all tied on votes, so the rules were changed the following year to prevent such ties happening again.
Lulu has appeared in numerous films – as herself – and has enjoyed chart success right up to the present day. In 2000 she was awarded an OBE by Queen Elizabeth.
