Lulu joins kenny on monday night

Global superstar and singing sensation Lulu opens up about a career that spans over five decades and the subsequent impact stardom has had on her personal life, on the next episode of Pat Kenny in the Round, this Monday at the later time of 9.30pm.

Propelled from a Glasgow tenement to stardom at the age of fifteen, Lulu speaks to Pat about her journey to international fame, her Eurovision success, being present in JFK airport on the morning of the 9/11 attacks, as well as performing some of the tracks that made her famous. An emotional Lulu also recounts her short-lived marriage to Bee Gee, Maurice Gibb, in 1969:

“To be very famous, with the spotlight on you, you feel invincible – there are people screaming for you and everyone wants your attention. You’re very high when you are performing, but then it is suddenly very, very lonely. And Maurice and I were, I think, very lonely. We were both child stars, which I don’t think is such a great thing – emotionally we were stunted. So we reached out to each other.”

Discussing the close relationship she shared with her mother and the effect which her success at such a young age had on her, Lulu said:

“At this point in my life, I think back to when I left home at the age of fifteen – my mother had a little bit of a breakdown. Even though she encouraged me to sing and she pushed me a lot, when it actually happened that I left her, I think it was very upsetting and difficult for her. And I didn’t really get how difficult that was until I was much older and had a son that went to America to live with his father.

“Even when I would cry in my bed at night missing my parents, I wouldn’t go home – I didn’t go home, because I was on a roll. I was driven, and I’m still driven. I used to think ambition was a dirty word when I was young, but now I don’t think it is. It’s just how you are and I’m ambitious – and in fact, I’m still waiting to be discovered if I am honest.”

Most famous for her cover version of the Isley Brothers hit, ‘Shout’, Lulu reminisces about the first time she heard the song that would change her life forever, while attending a performance by Alex Harvey in a Glasgow club in 1964:

“I had never heard anything like it before in my life. And I said, what is that song? I was told it was the Isley Brothers. So the next day I went out and bought it - and that was that. I listened to it a thousand times.'

Filmed as live in front of a studio audience of 150 people, Pat Kenny in the Round is recorded in the Round Room of Dublin’s Mansion House. Pat Kenny’s interview with Lulu will broadcast on Monday, 25th May at 9.30pm, only on UTV Ireland.