Lulu insists she has always been very a 'private' person she reflects on childhood 'shame'

Lulu has always been a "very private" person. The 76-year-old singer shot to fame as a teenager in the 1960s with her now-signature song Shout but insisted that "nobody knows" who she really is because she has always been "very careful" when it comes to choosing what she reveals about herself. Speaking on BBC's The One Show, she said: "A friend of mine once said to me 'People think they know Lulu, but nobody knows you...' and I think it's partly to do with the fact that I come from a Scottish mother who said 'Don't wash your dirty linen in public!' "So I was very...I've always been very careful, very private. I'm chatty, but I keep a lot of things to myself, so now I'm talking about everything." The Eurovision star is heading out on tour across the UK in October to discuss her life, and explained that she has only decided to do so now because she comes from a generation where there was "a lot of shame" associated with talking about issues but things have since changed. She said: "This is mainly because the landscape has changed. When I was young, when my mother was young, you didn't talk [about things]. Everything was a secret, and there was a lot of shame because you didn't talk about stuff but today talk about things and I think it's healthier. Some overshare, but hopefully I won't! All the ups and downs I've had - and I've had a life, let's put it like that - I've had an amazing, amazing life but I've also had certain things in my life that I've never discussed. "When I go on stage, on my tour, I'm gonna have very special people ask questions on stage about my life, and I'm gonna reveal stuff, how I've come through certain things. "Maybe people can relate to it, and if I've managed to come through it, maybe it will help someone else. That's the way it is today and it is so much healthier."

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Yahoo

4 hours ago

• Yahoo

Musical roots: Austria's JJ opens up on Eurovision 2025 win, dream collaborators and what comes next

What do you get when you combine the soaring soprano stylings of Maria Callas, the drama of '90s divas like Celine and Whitney, and the bass-heavy, brat-pop chaos of Charli XCX? You get a winning Eurovision song. JJ, Austria's newly crowned champion of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, brought all of that and more with his electrifying song "Wasted Love". Euronews Culture caught up with the rising star to unpack the whirlwind of the final - from early morning rehearsals to the surreal moment his name was announced as the winner. The 24-year-old singer also reflects on his musical upbringing between karaoke nights and classical symphonies, and shares what's next for his music career now that the trophy is his. Related Austria's Eurovision winner JJ calls for Israel to be banned from contest Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calls for Israel to be excluded from Eurovision over Gaza war Euronews Culture: So, JJ, first of all, how are you? How have things been? JJ: Yeah good. Very busy. I've been traveling around a lot, but I'm enjoying every moment. It's so fun. Please walk us through the day of your Eurovision win, from waking up to taking home the trophy. So I woke up, I think, around 7:30 because we had to leave at 8 to head to the arena. Once we got there, we did a bit of press, then hair and makeup, and had a rehearsal in one of the vocal warm-up rooms. We went through the song once or twice - kind of like a performance run-through, including how I would move on stage. Then we had the family show, which I think started at 1 PM. That was basically the dress rehearsal for the evening show. It was fun, and the crowd was already wild. They were so loud - it was just an insane feeling. We also rehearsed the flag parade, and then I got to perform. While I was sitting there, I just thought, 'Okay, you just have to perform now. Tonight, soak in the moment, because this is the last time you're going to be on that stage." And yeah, it was so fun. I could really feel the energy of the crowd. After I came off stage, we did a bit more press - lots of interviews and TikToks and things like that. Then I took a one-hour nap because I needed some rest. Then it was the same thing again: waking up, having what I'd call a late lunch or early dinner, vocal warm-up, and then the show started. It became a routine by then - my semi-final was on Thursday, so I had the same schedule from Thursday to Saturday. During the final I thought I felt really present, but looking back now, it all feels like a blur because everything happened so fast - I didn't even have time to process it. When I finally had a bit of downtime before my nap, that's when I could actually reflect on what just happened. But overall, it was such a fun experience. And the more I think back, the more memories come up. I'll be like, 'Oh yeah, that happened too.' How did it feel when your name was announced as the winner? That was just crazy. We'd been there all day, and the three-hour show felt so long. I was really glad I performed early because then I could just watch my friends and cheer them on. But the waiting part felt endless. When they finally announced '178,' my team and I were freaking out. There's a video on social media where you can see them flinging me around like I was a fidget toy before pushing me toward the stage. It was all such a blur - so much happened at once. I was full of adrenaline and emotion - I felt every emotion you could think of. And yeah, I was just constantly sobbing. What did you do the night after winning? I performed again, then had to stay on stage for more interviews and official portraits. After that, we went to the press conference at the media center in Basel. I got back to the hotel at 3:30 AM, where I saw my sister and all the other delegations. We had a huge party in the hotel lobby until about 6 AM. So yeah, it was a long night! Where is the trophy going to go? Good question - I have no idea yet. So far, it's just been in my room. But I think we have a glass cabinet in the living room where we keep my grandmother's trophies. I think we'll just make space and put it next to hers. It's really heavy, and I don't have a suitcase for it, so I have to be careful. I don't want a NEMO experience - you know, they had a rough time with theirs breaking. Tell us a bit about your musical background. Can you remember when you first fell in love with music? That was in Dubai, where I grew up. We had karaoke parties every weekend at home - my family would invite friends and relatives. The first karaoke song I learned was 'Because of You' by Kelly Clarkson. Big song... Yeah, crazy, right? For a six-year-old to try and learn that! But it was fun. That was the first time I consciously learned a song. Then the next morning, my dad showed my siblings and me Beethoven - his symphonies - as well as Bach and Mozart. That's when my love for classical music began to grow too. So I basically grew up between both musical worlds, and my love for it just kept expanding. Any other influences that inspire you most? Yeah - Mariah Carey was a big influence. But really, the '90s divas - Celine, Whitney - they were a huge part of my life. My older sister and my mom loved listening to them, so I got a lot of inspiration through them. And I also listened to the radio a lot. I loved Ariana Grande too. So I'd say I'm a mix. And now, especially with the electronic side, my love for Charli XCX has grown even more -especially with her brat album. How did the operatic style come in? Did you learn that formally at school, or…? After going through puberty, I realised that I still had a high singing voice, and I thought it would be a cool party trick to imitate a soprano - like, 'Let's just sing high notes!' So. I started teaching myself by listening to audio recordings of Maria Callas and Montserrat Caballé on YouTube. Since I love imitating voices and sounds, I tried to recreate how they projected their voices. That's how I started learning to sing classically. Later, I got into university and began studying professional vocal technique. So your winning-song "Wasted Love" - it obviously starts as an operatic ballad and then takes off into techno banger. When you were writing the song, how did that idea come about? Did you always know you wanted to end it like that? So it was the three of us in the studio - Tayah, the songwriter; Thomas, the producer; and I. And we'd never worked together before, so this was our first time. They didn't have any experience with classical music, and it was also my first time in a recording studio. So we just let our creative minds flow. We knew we wanted to switch things up - we wanted something that would, you know, gag the people. Then our producer, Thomas, was like, 'What about techno?' And Tay and I were like, 'Okay, we'll see.' We took a quick bathroom break, and while we were gone, he'd already added some EDM/techno elements. When we came back, he was like, 'Guys, I did something.' And then he played it for us - and we were like, "Wow. This slaps." And from that day on, we just kept it. How has life been since winning? Yeah, it's been very fun - pretty busy, because I've been traveling a lot. But I love being in different places, meeting new people - especially with my amazing team. I honestly can't complain. I have the best people behind me, so I'm really happy about that. I do get recognised a lot more. And sometimes, you know, when we're in a rush, I want to take a picture with people, but then I have to start running again. So it's a bit stressful in that sense - but it's fun. It's nice being recognised. So what's next for you? What have you got going on - tour, album? Yeah! So after the whole European press and promotion tour, I'm heading right back into the studio once I get home to make new music - because that's what everyone is very excited for. I'm so looking forward to it. I love being in the studio and experimenting a bit. We've got enough time, and we're gonna let Wasted Love have its well-deserved moment. And while that's still riding its wave, I'll be back in the studio working on what's next. And where do you see your sound going? I'll definitely keep my operatic sound - that's my USP, that's what people know me for. I want to hold on to my musical we'll see how commercial we can go - or what other experimental switch-ups might fit with that operatic sound. But I'm definitely keeping the high notes. If you could team up with anyone - your dream collab - who's top of your list? Obviously, Ariana Grande. But I'd also love to work with Charli XCX. That would be insane.

Boston Globe

7 hours ago

• Boston Globe

William Cran, ‘Frontline' documentarian, is dead at 79

He began his career with the BBC, but he mostly worked as an independent producer, toggling between jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. He was most closely associated with WGBH's 'Frontline,' for which he produced 20 documentaries on a wide range of subjects -- some historical, like the four-part series 'From Jesus to Christ' (1998) and 'The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover' (1993), and some focused on current events, including 'Who's Afraid of Rupert Murdoch' (1995). Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up He won a slew of honors, including four Emmys, four duPont-Columbia University awards, two Peabodys, and an Overseas Press Club Award. Advertisement In 1986, he produced 'The Story of English,' an Emmy-winning nine-episode series for the BBC and PBS about how English became the world's dominant language. He, with journalists Robert MacNeil, the PBS news anchor, and Robert McCrum, turned it into a book. Mr. Cran produced two multipart documentaries based on books by historian Daniel Yergin: 'The Prize' (1990), a Pulitzer-winning history of oil, and 'The Commanding Heights' (1998, with Joseph Stanislaw), about the history of the modern global economy. Advertisement These were complicated stories, but Mr. Cran was able to frame them around characters and narrative threads that kept viewers engaged over several nights. 'I learned from him that less is more, that the script is not a shortened version of the book, but rather captions to go with the picture,' Yergin wrote in an email. 'He always stuck to the facts, but he always wanted dramatic tension.' Both documentaries were well-received, despite their potentially dry material. 'Using every familiar element of the documentarian's art, producer-director William Cran has created a masterpiece,' The Washington Post wrote of 'The Commanding Heights.' William Cran was born Dec. 11, 1945, in Hobart, on the island state of Tasmania, Australia. His mother, Jean (Holliday) Cran, was a teacher, and his father, John, was a science lecturer. The family moved to London when William was 6. He studied classics at Oxford, and though he knew early on that he wanted to make documentaries, he also dabbled in theater, directing two plays in London. After graduating in 1968, he became a trainee at the BBC, where he rose to producer, using then-novel techniques such as reconstructed scenes, and pursuing new genres including true crime. One early documentary was '1971 Luton Postmaster Murder,' about two men who were wrongly convicted of killing a British postmaster. But Mr. Cran grew tired of being what he called a 'company man,' and left the BBC after eight years. He moved to Toronto in 1976, becoming a senior producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s investigative news program 'The Fifth Estate.' Two years later, David Fanning, an executive at WGBH in Boston, reached out to him about a documentary program he was creating called 'World.' Advertisement Mr. Cran flew to Boston for a meeting -- and got stuck in the blizzard of 1978. While holed up at Fanning's home, the two cooked up an idea for Mr. Cran's first documentary for the program, 'Chachaji: My Poor Relation,' a story of modern India told through the family of writer Ved Mehta. 'What was particular about Bill is that each one of his films is different,' Fanning said in an interview, adding, 'He would do these surprising things. He would say: 'I think I want to build a set. I want to build a bedroom in the studio.'' Fanning trusted Mr. Cran so much that in 1983, when 'World' was rebranded as 'Frontline,' with a tighter focus on current events, he asked Mr. Cran to produce its first two documentaries, with the first about corruption in the NFL. The next 'Frontline' subject, '88 Seconds in Greensboro,' probed the 1979 deaths of five people after a pro-communist march was attacked by members of the Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party in North Carolina. Four local camera crews had filmed the bloodshed. Mr. Cran and his team 'edited the combined footage into an amazingly complete anatomy of a murder,' wrote TV reviewer David Bianculli in the Akron Beacon Journal. In 1993, Mr. Cran led a 'Frontline' documentary team that looked into possible abuses and compromises by the longtime FBI director in 'The Secret File on J. Edgar Hoover.' The four-part series built a case that Hoover, who led the agency (and its forerunner) from 1924 to 1972, potentially made concessions to organized crime and other groups to avoid public disclosures of his gay relationships. Advertisement 'Our investigation found that this master of political blackmail was wide open to blackmail himself,' Mr. Cran said. 'There is overwhelming evidence that the mob knew it had nothing to fear from Hoover's FBI.' One of Mr. Cran's most historically expansive documentaries, the series 'From Jesus to Christ' (1998), took shape after Fanning met with a WGBH producer, Marilyn Mellowes, who was working on a documentary to bring more cultural and political context to the life of Jesus and the New Testament. Fanning agreed to bring aboard additional resources, including Mr. Cran as a senior producer and director. 'We make no judgment about faith, and we make no judgments about divinity,' Fanning told journalists. The documentary framed the life of Jesus in the wider realities of Roman-controlled Galilee, described by scholars as a center of Jewish resistance and activism. Jesus, meanwhile, was not raised amid a pastoral idyll - as portrayed in some accounts - but mingled with people from across the Roman world and was probably well aware of the political foment around him, the documentary suggested. Mr. Cran's first marriage, to Araminta Wordsworth, ended in divorce. His second wife, Stephanie Tepper, who worked with him as a producer on several films, died in 1997. His third wife, Polly Bide, died in 2003. He married Vicki Barker, a CBS journalist, in 2014. She survives him, as do three daughters from his second marriage, Jessica, Rebecca and Chloe Cran; his sister, Vicki Donovan; and a granddaughter. Many of Mr. Cran's films continue to be watched. 'Two months ago,' Yergin said, 'I was walking up Madison Avenue and someone -- out of the blue, startled to see me -- stopped me to say that watching 'Commanding Heights' had changed his life.' Advertisement Material from The Washington Post was used in this obituary.

Yahoo

8 hours ago

• Yahoo

After reading 'murders and fitba' on STV Shereen Nanjiani never strayed from Scotland

AH, Shereen. Ye ken who we mean. The People's Shereen. Household name an' a' that. Household first name indeed. Shereen Nanjiani used to read the 'murders and fitba'' news on Scotland Today at teatime. Then she went on to present current affairs radio programmes for the BBC. Until last week, that is, when she announced that, after 19 years, she was leaving to 'explore new adventures' and, er, enjoy a nice lie-in. Ach well, she certainly deserves it. Worked hard but it paid off, as she came to be 'much loved', as every newspaper profile acknowledges, on account of everyone finding her warm, nice and trustworthy. One imagines that's what everyone thought on 4 October 1961 when she was born in Elderslie, in the sunshine state of Renfrewshire. She cut her broadcasting teeth on Hospital Radio Paisley in the late 1970s, reading local news cuttings gathered during the week. After graduating from Glesga Yoonie, where she studied philosophy – makes you think, doesn't it? – she became a trainee journalist with STV in 1983, at the age of 22. However, hardly had she got her Biro out of her pocket than she was asked to present the evening bulletin after the regular presenter, Sheena McDonald, called in sick. 'I was aghast and immediately said I couldn't possibly do it,' she told The Herald in 2017. 'This was the main news programme, the big one, with a million viewers.' However, her boss told her reassuringly: 'Don't worry, if you f*** it up you won't be doing it again.' She didn't flip it up. In fact, she was a natural. And she loved it. Live TV: what a buzz! 'It really was a baptism of fire,' she recalled. 'I still hadn't had any training when I started doing the job for real – but I surprised myself how much I enjoyed it.' (Image: Yui Mok) MAKING THE NEWS SOON, she was appointed joint anchor of the main evening programme, and that was her for the next 20 years, reading all the news fit to blurt, as happy families gathered sociably in front of the television. She was Scotland's first Asian-heritage newsreader and, at first, was not chuffed at the channel's press releases majoring on that. 'I remember thinking, 'Oh, is that what you're seeing?' I was quite upset about it. I … wondered whether that was why I got the job. I thought it reeked of tokenism. 'I actually believe I did get the job on my own merits, but I thought it was a bit cynical of them to present me in that way. I spent much of my career railing against it, not wanting that tag to follow me around. And, of course, I was only half-Asian.' However, her feelings on the issue changed when she realised she'd become a role model for a whole generation of Asian Scots. 'So many young Asian people were coming up to me and saying, 'You've no idea what a difference it made seeing your face on TV.'' Of course, she suffered from imposter syndrome. Every genuine professional does. Anyone who doesn't suffer from imposter syndrome is an imposter. Shereen went on to present many programmes for STV, including religious affairs series Eikon, documentary series Secret Scotland, and a number of live debates and election programmes. She also hosted many of The Herald's Scottish Politician of the Year awards. At STV, she covered Lockerbie, Dunblane and the new Scottish Parliament. She also reported from Romanian orphanages after the fall of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, from South Africa after the election of Nelson Mandela, and from Pakistan after the 9/11 terror attacks. However, after 20 years of presenting in the studio, she told The Herald, 'it was beginning to feel like Groundhog Day and I just wasn't enjoying it so much'. READ MORE: Robert McNeil: I detest yon Romans but I dig excavating their wee fortlets RAB MCNEIL'S SCOTTISH ICONS: John Knox – the fiery preacher whose pal got burnt at the stake Rab McNeil: All this talk about celebs and their neuroses is getting on my nerves GAGA FOR RADIO IN 2006, along with colleagues Jane Lewis and Sarah Heaney, she accepted voluntary redundancy from STV She was looking forward to other exciting projects away from live television, she said. This turned out to be live radio, and it was on the BBC, hitherto her rivals. Nanjiani helmed, as they say, Radio Scotland's Friday lunchtime programme, Scotland Live. She then went on to present Shereen, a live news and current affairs programme broadcast every Sunday morning with a 'lively panel' of commentators, a guest in the headlines, and reviews of the latest TV and streaming releases. Last weekend, having by now earned the double-edged adjective 'legendary' (it hints of both achievement and, er, maturity), she announced she was stepping away from the mic. For noo. She said she'd loved being part of BBC Radio Scotland, where she'd made so many good friends. 'They made me laugh and they made me think' – see, that old philosophy degree was not a total waste of time, after all – 'and it's always been a joy to come to work in the morning.' However, she felt now was the time to 'get my weekends back again, have a lie in, and explore new adventures'. BBC Radio Scotland commissioning editor Heather Kane Darling said it had been a pleasure to work with Shereen over the last 19 years, adding: 'I know our teams will miss working with her, and we thank her for her professionalism and dedication during her time with us.' Outwith her professional career, Shereen has undertaken several voluntary sector roles, including Ambassador for St Vincent's Hospice, Children's Hearing panel member, Tron Theatre board member and chair, and National Theatre of Scotland board member. COPPING LAUGHS SHE once appeared as herself in a memorable episode of BBC police spoof comedy Scot Squad, in which she tried – and failed – to present a harassed Officer Karen with a certificate declaring her one of Scotland's community heroes. The first comment under the relevant YouTube clip reads: 'SHEREEN!!!! LEGEND!!!' My understanding is that the number of exclamation marks indicates the strength of emphasis. In 2019, Shereen was invited to join the British Empire, receiving an MBE at Buckingham Palace from Charles, Prince and later King of England and the Other Bits. Asked by The Herald's Marianne Taylor if she'd ever been tempted to move to London, following in the footsteps of other Scots like Selina Scott, Kirsty Wark and Lorraine Kelly, she replied: 'I've always been very comfortable in Scotland. I suppose I was always comfortable with the Scottish people, too … I like my life here. Maybe I could and should have spread my wings, but I have no regrets.' That's the spirit. Truly a woman with her talking head screwed on.