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Have you heard Shirley Bassey sing? Of course, we all know the classics like "Big Spender" and "Diamonds Are Forever"—it’s said she took her bra off to let loose that incredible final climatic note of "Goldfinger".
But seek out a live performance like 1973's "Where Do I Begin" or 1963's "I Who Have Nothing" and prepare yourself: the Grande Dame of standards delivers like no other, performing like her life depended on it.
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Dressed to impress, always, yet nothing overshadows the voice. That voice. The alto-mezzo with the belt, the vibrato, the power and the glory. Bassey and her voice were always destined for the bright lights of both Bond and Broadway, but the journey there wasn’t a smooth one.
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She rarely speaks of her early years, but it can’t have been easy growing up as a biracial kid in 1950s Wales, the youngest of six to a single parent mum.
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Yet while there was struggle, Bassey possessed something valuable: talent. The teenager's vocal was so powerful she was made to stand at the back of the school choir.
She was that good. However, performing had to wait when Bassey left school aged fifteen to help support her family—she supplemented her ambitions by working in a factory and waiting tables.
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Two years later, she had a child of her own to support, daughter Sharon, but Shirley Bassey was clearly never one to be held back. Not with that voice.
What a difference a decade can make. In 1954, she was a teenage single mum of one; ten years later, she was singing "Goldfinger", the theme tune to the third Bond film.
A star was truly born. Not that she hadn’t already made a name for herself by then; from singing in working men’s clubs to becoming a popular theatre and cabaret performer, Bassey was the first ever Welsh person to go to No. 1 in the UK with her 1959 hit, “As I Love You”.
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While she never quite matched the international chart success of "Goldfinger", which went to No. 8 on the US Billboard charts, Bassey has remained a star of the stage, selling out shows and tours across the world for decades now.
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There have been a staggering 35 albums and 105 singles, TV specials, endorsement deals, performances with Elvis and Sinatra, as well as the Pet Shop Boys and the Manic Street Preachers.
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In 2007, at the age of 71 and wearing £3,000 diamond-encrusted wellies, Ms Bassey headlined Glastonbury.
A philanthropist as well as a performer, she was first made a CBE in 1994 before becoming a Dame in 1999 for her services to music.
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The woman with the golden voice was awarded the freedom of her hometown, Cardiff—a place she says remains close to her heart—in 2019. She may not perform as much now, but that voice, her voice, it’ll live as long as those diamonds.
This digital work has been produced in collaboration with PRS Foundation and POWER UP. The article first featured in TRENCH x Union Black's Chapter One: Game Changers zine.
Words by Hattie Collins
Photography via LIFE, Time Inc.
Videos by Royal Albert Hall, Shirley Bassey
Commissioned by TRENCH
