Lulu facts: Age, marriages, songs and real name of the Scottish superstar

10 July 2025, 11:41

How Lulu from Lennoxtown conquered the world.

Lulu is a '60s superstar, but she's so much more than that.

The Scottish singer had a run of major hits that decade and won the Eurovision Song Contest, too, but she also racked up top 10 hits in the '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s.

• 'Boom Bang-a-Bang' by Lulu: The making of the quirky Eurovision joint-winner
• Lulu's 10 best songs ever, ranked
• Listen to the Gold Radio 60s Live Playlist on Global Player, the official Gold app

Whether it's playing her own live sets or popping up on stage to do 'Hot Legs' with Rod Stewart, she's still going strong today.

But how much do you know about the pint-sized singer with the powerhouse vocals?

Read on for all your Lulu fast facts.

How old is Lulu and what's her real name?

Lulu was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie on November 3, 1948. She celebrated her 76th birthday in 2024.

She was born to mum Elizabeth and dad Eddie at Lennox Castle in Lennoxtown and grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. Lulu went to Thomson Street Primary School and Onslow Drive School.

It emerged years later when she was in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? that Lulu's mum Elizabeth had effectively been given away as a child to the McDonald family. Elizabeth's dad was Catholic and her mum's mum was a Protestant, which caused plenty of issues in the family.

In later years, Lulu took her late mum's birth name and became known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns.

As for how she got her stage name, it was from her then-future manager Marion Massey. "Well, all I know is that she's a real lulu of a kid," Marion was reported to have said.

In 2008, Lulu said of Massey: "The first thing she did was to change my name from Marie Lawrie to Lulu and the band became The Luvvers.

"If she'd done nothing else for me, that alone was life-changing. Who knows what success I'd have had if that hadn't happened?"

How did Lulu get into music?

LULU - Singing Shout from Ready Steady Go 1965

Lulu got into music at a very young age.

She sang first in The Bellrocks when she was barely a teenager, before joining The Gleneagles and touring venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh when she was just 14.

It was in Glasgow's Lindella Club that Lulu was spotted by its owner Tony Gordon. Tony introduced Lulu to his sister Marion Massey, and things moved incredibly quickly after that.

In 1964 Marion got Lulu signed to Decca Records and her powerhouse cover of The Isley Brothers' 'Shout' was released by Lulu & the Luvvers later that year. It got to number 7 in the charts, making Lulu an instant success.

She soon started being credited without the band, and while 'I Can't Hear You No More' failed to chart and 'Here Comes The Night' stalled at number 50, she hit the top ten once again in 1965 with 'Leave a Little Love', proving she was no one hit wonder.

When was Lulu at Eurovision and how did she do?

Lulu - Boom Bang-a-Bang | Live at the Eurovision Song Content (1969)

Despite her chart hits, things blew hot and cold for Lulu in the mid-1960s.

After a few flop singles she left Decca and moved to Columbia, where she was paired with Mickie Most, scoring a hit with Neil Diamond cover 'The Boat That I Row', the first of seven charting singles made with the producer.

The last of those was 'Boom Bang-A-Bang', which became Lulu's biggest hit when it peaked at number two off the back of its successful showing at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969.

Lulu had already been picked by The BBC to represent the UK at that year's competition, and 'Boom A Bang-a-Bang' was chosen at the national final.

She sung the song not just in English, but also in French, German, Spanish, and Italian, which likely didn't hurt its performance in the Europe-wide competition.

As it went, Lulu scored 18 points - making her a joint winner with Spain, France and the Netherlands

Which James Bond film did Lulu sing the theme for?

The Man with the Golden Gun Opening Title Sequence

Not content with conquering one institution, Lulu hit (ahem) gold with another when she was chosen to sing John Barry and Dob Black's theme for 1974 James Bond movie The Man With The Golden Gun.

007? Double-entendre more like ("His eye may be on you or me / Who will he bang?"). Still, she gave it absolutely everything and it's hard to imagine anyone else doing it so well (apparently Elton John and even Cat Stevens were considered).

It's gloriously OTT, though not everyone was pleased. Namely Alice Cooper had written his own song for the film that he thought had the edge over Lulu.

"It was supposed to be the Bond theme, but it actually came in a day too late, and by the time they heard it, they'd already signed for Lulu's song," Alice said in 2011.

"I went, 'You're gonna take Lulu over this?'. 'Cause it was perfect for The Man With The Golden Gun. It had helicopters, it had machine guns – it had the Pointer Sisters, Ronnie Spector, and Liza Minnelli doing background vocals!

"We went to every single one of those John Barry albums to try and invent the perfect James Bond song, and even Christopher Lee, who played Scaramanga in the movie, said, 'Oh, man, why did we take the Lulu song? This song is the one!'."

What are Lulu's biggest songs and collaborations?

Take That - Relight My Fire (Official Video) ft. Lulu

As well as her own solo singles like 'Shout" and 'The Man With The Golden Gun', Lulu has scored chart success by collaborating with the likes of Elton John, Ronan Keating, Bobby Womack and – with the number one hit cover of Dan Hartman's 'Relight My Fire' – Take That.

Lulu's biggest songs include:

• Shout
• Here Comes the Night
• Leave A Little Love
• Tru to Understand
• The Boat That I Row
• To Sir With Love
• Let's Pretend
• Love Loves to Love Love
• Me, the Peaceful Heart
• Boy
• Morning Dew
• I'm A Tiger
• Boom Bang-a-Bang
• Oh Me Oh My (I'm a Fool For You Baby)
• The Man Who Sold The World
• Take Your Mama for a Ride
• I Could Never Miss You (More Than I Do)
• My Boy Lollipop
• Independence
• I'm Back for More (with Bobby Womack)
• Relight My Fire (Take That featuring Lulu)
• How 'Bout Us
• Goodbye Baby and Amen
• Every Woman Knows
• Hut Me So Bad
• Where the Poor Boys Dance
• We've Got Tonight (with Ronan Keating)
• Cry (with the Military Wives Choirs)

What films and TV shows has Lulu appeared in?

Lulu has always been more focused on her music than other parts of showbiz, but she's still racked up an impressive number of serious screen credits over the years.

In 1967 she made her movie debut opposite the actual Sidney Poitier in To Sir With Love, playing Barbara 'Babs' Pegg. She also sung the title song for the movie, earning herself a US chart-topper in the process.

She had perviously appeared as herself in 1964 science fiction/musical fantasy Gonks Go Beat.

Lulu then popped up as "Lulu the Cook" in Bee Gees vehicle Cucumber Castle and led "lost" 1972 British drama The Cherry Picker as Nancy.

That was it at the movies for a decade, before she provided the signing voice for Alice in 1982 musical adaptation Alice (a.k.a. Alicja).

Lulu and Sidney Poitier returned for Peter Bogdanovich's 1996 TV sequel To Sir, with Love II and after that there were parts in comedies like Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie and Arthur's Whiskey.

On the smaller screen, Lulu fronted her own variety shows like Lulu's Back in Town, Happening for Lulu and It's Lulu, as well as presenting Gadzooks! and Three of a Kind.

When it came to playing other characters, she was in the Nellie the Elephant cartoon and an episode of Heartbeat as singer Deborah Vine who sings 'To Sir, With Love'.

Who has Lulu been married to and does she have any children?

Just a few weeks before Eurovision and before she popped up in Cucumber Castle, Lulu married Maurice Gibb from the Bee Gees at Gerrards Cross in Buckinghamshire in April 1969. They even had to push back their honeymoon because of the song contest.

They were only together a few years. Gibb's drinking and the pressures of fame pushed them apart and they divorced in 1973, but remained on good terms.

There was then a relationship of some description with David Bowie.

"Once we’d had something to drink we were head-to-head, nose-to-nose for the rest of the evening," she told The Guardian of their meet-up at a Sheffield hotel.

Lulu - The Man Who Sold The World (1974)

She covered and had a hit with 'The Man Who Sold The World', and also recorded the unreleased 'Dodo' and 'Can You Hear Me', but they parted.

"It was quite a difficult time. He was doing Young Americans and involved in a lot of dark things. I was a little bit frightened and kinda ran.

"I don't have many regrets but there is a part of me that thinks, 'What if the relationship would have continued?' Im a very private person, and most people only know a piece of me, but Bowie got me."

Lulu married hairdresser John Frieda in 1977 and they had one son, Jordan Frieda, together. They divorced in 1991.