Just a few weeks after picking up a special award at the National Music Awards, Dame Shirley Bassey was at the Cardiff International Arena where she was awarded the first ever lifetime achievement award at the 10th Western Mail Welsh Woman of the Year Awards ceremony. It was an emotional night for Dame Shirley as she tearfully received the award to a standing ovation.



The Western Mail Welsh Woman of the Year Awards were launched in 1994 and have become one of the most important events in the Welsh calendar. Over the past decade, the awards have reflected upon and reinforced the changing role of women by celebrating their achievements and the value of their contributions to the stability of Wales.

Songs of Shirley Bassey gratefully acknowledges the staff at The Western Mail for their help and information.
 

Welsh diva Dame Shirley Bassey has been honoured at the Welsh Woman of the Year Awards.

The singer - known for recording three James Bond themes - was given the lifetime achievement award at the ceremony in Cardiff. She is the first person to ever receive the prize.

She said she was thinking of "packing it all in" but had now been made to change her mind.

"This year has been the most exciting of my career and to have this award to come at the end of the year is the icing on the cake," she said.

"There won't be another award that will top this," she added.

The Western Mail Welsh Woman of the Year Awards were launched in 1994.

Their aim is to reflect and reinforce the changing roles of women by celebrating their achievements and the value of their contributions to the stability of Wales.

Dame Shirley said she was so proud to return to Wales for the award.

She said: "I'm Welsh and to be nominated speaks for itself. I'm being honoured by my country, my home, Cardiff."

She was born on 8 January 1937 in Cardiff's Tiger Bay.

She said that becoming a well-known singer had been tough.

"I think it's easier for girl singers now because of all the pop shows on television.

"They don't have the chance to learn the art that I had to develop. They are instantly famous but it's taken me 50 years and I don't know if they'd last 50 days."

© BBC 2003
 

Right: Dame Shirley, Glenys Kinnock, Alan Edmunds (Editor of The Western Mail) and Keith Dye (Managing Director of The Western Mail) - Photo by Glenn Edwards.

A TEARFUL Dame Shirley Bassey accepted the first ever Western Mail Welsh Woman of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award last night and described it as the highlight of her 50th year in showbusiness.

To a standing ovation at the Cardiff International Arena, she said, "This has been the most wonderful year for me and one of the most exciting in my whole career.

"This year I celebrate 50 years in showbusiness. When I was a schoolkid they told me I was the child most unlikely to succeed, but 50 years is a hell of a lot of success.

"A lot of wonderful things have happened for me this year with many awards but this from The Western Mail is the best. From my home town of Cardiff, diolch yn fawr."

Earlier, Dame Shirley Bassey had told me she feels sorry for the stars of Pop Idol who achieve instant fame and almost immediately disappear into obscurity.

Elegant and exciting in a sheath-like, glittering silver dress that clung to her youthful figure, she said that without her poor background in Cardiff's colourful dockland, Tiger Bay, she might never have become a superstar.

"Those of us from poor homes are the only ones who can make it because those from good backgrounds will not put up with what we had to put up with. They do not have the toughness that coming from a hard background gives you. You need that to be successful."

She does not envy those who achieve fame with programmes like Pop Idol.

"I hope I am a good example to those young stars," said Dame Shirley, who had just flown into cold and rainy Britain from the 24-degree warmth of Monte Carlo. "They all want instant success. But if they win it doesn't last. They are all destroyed.

"I am celebrating 50 years at the top in showbusiness. Some of those will be lucky if they are able to celebrate 50 days.

"They have nothing to help them. There are no variety theatres nowadays. I went into variety shows around the country when I was beginning. That gave me the chance to learn my trade.

"But these kids today don't have that chance. And they don't last a year."

As the youngest of seven children she was "a very spoiled child". She was aware from an early age that she had an exceptional voice. At first it did not earn lavish praise.

She was ordered out of the factory she was working in for singing too loudly. When she began singing in her school choir in Cardiff she was moved back to mask the power of that voice. "That didn't work because they said I was still singing too loudly. So they moved me into the corridor!"

After almost 50 years as an international nomad, she still thinks of Cardiff as home. Her concert in the city last June was particularly memorable since it coincided with her 50th anniversary. "That was a time for tears," she remembers.

"I always feel I have to perform that much better when I came back to Cardiff. The city looks wonderful these days."

At 66 she was beginning to think of winding down her career. Then came the 50th anniversary. "That started all the bells ringing once more. I am getting offers from everywhere now - Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore. "So I find myself saying, 'There goes my retirement for another 50 years!'"

© Western Mail 2003

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