Dame Shirley Bassey: A Woman with a Voice for Song

Shirley Bassey is starring in one of the few fairy tales of the current music business. At 72, she returned to the top of the British sales list thanks to The Performance with Geffen.

Born in 1937 in the docks of Cardiff, Shirley was the youngest of seven children, product of the union between an English mother and a Nigerian father, a sailor who disappeared shortly after. In school and during her work period, she was humiliated by the color of her skin. The extraordinary thing is that, although she identifies with her Welsh root, she hardly has any contact with her family nor does she act as an advocate for multicultural Britain. Her political position placed her on the right of the Conservative Party.

Bassey had already made the winks of a diva of our ironic era. She triumphed at a rock festival (Glastonbury), worked with electronic groups (Yello, Propellerheads), played rap hits (Kanye West) and performed duets with pop artists (Chris Rea). Despite all of this, she considered herself retired as a record artist.

Happily, now she returns to what she does best: powerful ballads, playing with her stormy biography or enhancing her legend as a self-made woman.

The British artist Dame Shirley Bassey is popularly known for having played the main songs of three films of the James Bond saga.

Although she did not offer any performances during her visit to the Casino, she could not avoid going through the back-stage to greet all the artists that make up the show and congratulate them for their work, being the most emotional moment when she met the artist who imitated her during the show, Armani D`Vyne Duffus.