Twentieth-Century Divas: Shirley Bassey - Dominic Broomfield-McHugh Gresham College Lectures

The Black Welsh singer started out recording cover versions of American songbook classics but rose to international fame after her performance of the title song of Goldfinger. Movie songs, successful albums and popular television specials followed, but so too did personal tragedy and a highly critical (and gendered) reputation of her professional behaviour in the media.The word ‘diva’ has been applied both admiringly and misogynistically to her life and work, typifying her experience as a Bla...