Lulu announces new UK tour will be her last after 60-year career

Scottish singer Lulu has announced her next set of gigs will be a “farewell tour with family and friends”.

The 75-year-old, born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie and also known as Lulu Kennedy-Cairns, revealed that her last tour was “gruelling” and said she wants to “carry on working but I want to do it differently”.

Speaking about her upcoming 2024 tour, Champagne For Lulu, on the Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth podcast, she said: “If you’ve ever seen me on tour just let me say you won’t have seen me like this.

“This is actually… I’m announcing it for the first time now.

“This is my farewell tour with family and friends because last year I did a tour that was kind of gruelling. It was successful, it went well.

“But you need an army to be a success in your career these days.

“And I felt unsupported and then I turned 75 and I thought you know what? I want to carry on working but I want to do it differently.

“I’ve learned and I’ve also become a slightly different person. I’m not afraid to be vulnerable.”

Lulu will embark on her farewell tour, celebrating 60 years in music, in April, starting with a show in Glasgow – her home city.

During an appearance on Lorraine in January the singer and actress said she still wants to work after her tour and announced plans to make a new album.

Lulu shot to fame aged just 15 when Shout, a cover of the Isley Brothers track, became a hit.

In 1969 she represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest and her song Boom Bang-A-Bang was the joint winner that year as she shared the prize with France, The Netherlands and Spain with 18 points each.

In 2017 Lulu announced she would be taking on the biggest tour of her career, called All About The Music Tour, which spanned 40 dates around the UK, in October and November of that same year.

In an interview with the Daily Express newspaper where she discussed the tour, the singer said that she had not yet contemplated retirement.

“I don’t think of retirement. My son wouldn’t dare ask if I would retire,” she said.

Lulu returned to the West End in 2018, joining the cast of musical 42nd Street to play the lead role Dorothy Brock, and she has most recently starred in 2024 Sky Cinema comedy Arthur’s Whisky.