Why is dame vera Lynn famous?

Answer 1

Dame Vera Lynn is the oldest living artist to have a number one hit 'we will meat again.' She beat the arctic monkeys and the Beatles to capture the number one record in Britain Lynn was known as the 'Forces sweetheart' and her songs were evocative reminders of home for British soldiers during world war ll.

Answer 2

Vera Lynn

Vera Lynn
Vera Lynn at the War and Peace Show, in July 2009 Background information Birth name Vera Margaret Welch Born 20 March 1917 (1917-03-20) (age 92)
East Ham, London, England, UK Genres Traditional Pop Years active 1935-1995, 2009 Labels UK Decca/London, HMV

Dame Vera Lynn, DBE (born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917) is an English singer whose career flourished during World War II. Nicknamed "The Forces' Sweetheart", the songs most associated with her are "We'll Meet Again" and "The White Cliffs of Dover".

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Early life

Lynn was born Vera Margaret Welch on 20 March 1917, in East Ham, then in Essex, now part of Greater London. Vera Lynn went to what is now called Brampton Primary School in East Ham. Her father was a plumber and Vera Welch grew up with her parents' Cockney accent, which can still be detected when she speaks. She began singing at the age of seven in a working men's club, and later adopted her grandmother's maiden name for her stage name. Lynn's first radio broadcast was in 1935 with the Joe Loss Orchestra. She was already being featured on the records of dance bands, including those led by Loss and Charlie Kunz. She made her first solo record on the Crown label in 1936, "Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire". (The label was soon bought out by Decca.) After a short time with Loss, she sang with Kunz. Lynn then joined the dance band of Bert Ambrose.[1]

War years

In 1940, one year after the beginning of World War II, Lynn began her own radio programme, Sincerely Yours, sending messages to British troops serving abroad. She and a quartet would perform songs most requested by the soldiers. Lynn also visited hospitals to interview new mothers and send personal messages to their husbands overseas. During the war years she would tour Egypt, India, Burma, giving outdoor concerts for the troops.

In 1942, Lynn recorded the Ross Parker/Hughie Charles song "We'll Meet Again", also appearing in the film of that name. The nostalgic lyrics ("We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day") were very popular during the war and became one of the emblematic songs of the war. Contrary to later reports, she neither sang nor recorded the "Rose of England" during this time and it was only in 1966 when her producer, David Gooch, selected it for her album More Hits of the Blitz that she became familiar with it. The album itself was a follow up to Hits of the Blitz produced by Norman Newell.

Post-war career

Lynn's Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart became the first record by a British performer to top the charts in the United States, doing so for nine weeks. She also appeared regularly for a time on Tallulah Bankhead's U.S. radio programme, The Big Show. "Auf Wiedersehen, Sweetheart", along with "The Homing Waltz" and "Forget-Me-Not", gave Lynn a remarkable three entries on the first UK Singles Chart, a top 12 (which actually contained 15 songs owing to tied positions).

Lynn remained popular in the 1950s, peaking with "My Son, My Son", a number-one hit in 1954. Lynn co-wrote the song with Eddie Calvert. In early 1960, she left Decca Records after nearly 25 years, and joined EMI. She recorded for EMI's Columbia, MGM and HMV labels. She hit the top 10 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart in 1967 with "It Hurts To Say Goodbye".

Vera is also notable for being the only artist to have a chart span on the UK single and album charts reaching from the chart's inception to the 21st century - having three singles in the first ever singles chart, and most recently having a #1 album with We'll Meet Again - The Very Best Of Vera Lynn (see below).

Honours

Vera Lynn was appointed an Officer (OBE) of the Order of the British Empire in 1959, and a Dame Commander of the Order (DBE) in 1975. In 2000, she received a special "Spirit of the 20th Century" Award. In 1976, vera lynn charity Breast Cancer Research Trust, was founded, with Lynn its chairperson and later its president.

Later years

Lynn sang outside Buckingham Palace in 1995 in a ceremony that marked the golden jubilee of VE Day. This was her last known public performance.

In 2002, at age of 85, Lynn became the president of the cerebral palsy charity SOS and hosted a celebrity concert on its behalf at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

The United Kingdom's VE Day Diamond Jubilee ceremonies in 2005 included a concert in Trafalgar Square in which Vera Lynn made a surprise appearance. She made a speech praising the veterans and calling upon the younger generation always to remember their sacrifice and joined in with a few bars of "We'll Meet Again". Following that year's Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, Dame Vera encouraged the Welsh mezzo-soprano singer Katherine Jenkins to assume the mantle of "Forces Sweetheart".

In her speech Lynn said, "These boys gave their lives and some came home badly injured and for some families, life would never be the same. We should always remember, we should never forget and we should teach the children to remember."

In September 2008, Vera Lynn helped launch a new social history recording website called "The Times of My Life" at the Cabinet War Rooms in London.

Her autobiography Some Sunny Day was published in August 2009 at the age of ninety-two. She has already written two previous memoirs: Vocal Refrain in 1970, and We'll Meet Againin 1989.

On 18 February 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Vera Lynn was suing the British National Party (BNP) for using "White Cliffs of Dover" on an anti-immigration album without her permission. Dame Vera's lawyer claimed sales of the song would earn the BNP money and seemed to link Vera Lynn to the party's right-wing views by association.

On 13th September 2009, Dame Vera became the oldest living artist to make it into No. 1 in the UK album chart, at the age of 92. Her collection We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn entered the chart at number 20 on 30th August, and then climbed to number 2 the following week, before reaching the top position.[7] In doing this, she beat out the re-mastered Beatles' album of songs.[8] In its third week the album went gold with sales of over 100,000. Year Album Chart Positions Certifications Sales UK IRE EU DUT NOR NZ DEN BEL AUS 2009 We'll Meet Again: The Very Best of Vera Lynn[9][10]

• Compilation Album
• Released: August 25, 2009
• Label: Decca Records
• Formats: CD, digital download

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