Curated playlist
20th-century English singers
- John LennonJohn Lennon was ordered to leave the United States in 1973. His anti-war activities had alarmed President Nixon.
- Amy WinehouseAmy Winehouse won five Grammys singing by satellite from London at 3 a.m. Her visa was not processed in time.
- Chris MartinChris Martin, the English singer and pianist born on the 2nd of March 1977, composed a three-minute instrumental called "Electric Thunder" when he was 12 years old. In February 2020, a former fellow pupil found it on a cassette tape.…
- Julie AndrewsJulie Andrews sang on a beer crate as a child. She needed it to reach the microphone in wartime variety shows.
- Melanie CIn 1994, Melanie Jayne Chisholm, known as Melanie C, joined around 400 women answering an advertisement in The Stage magazine. The advertisement came from two managers hoping to form a new girl group. That group became the Spice Girls, and…
- Victoria BeckhamOn the 8th of July 2000, Victoria Beckham performed alone in public for the first time. The setting was London's Hyde Park, where a crowd of 100,000 had gathered for a Prince's Trust charity concert. She sang "Out of Your Mind", her first…
- Petula ClarkPetula Clark's photo was plastered on British Army tanks as a good-luck charm. She was a child singer during the Blitz.
- Damon AlbarnDamon Albarn was due to speak at a rally in Hyde Park in February 2003. A million people had taken to the streets of London to protest the coming war in Iraq. He never gave the speech, because he was too emotional. Afterwards he explained…
- Dick JamesMusic publisher Dick James phoned in "Please Please Me" and won The Beatles their first national TV spot.
- Julian LennonJulian Lennon's nursery school painting inspired a Beatles song. It showed his classmate Lucy O'Donnell among stars.