# Kathy Kirby
**Kathy Kirby** (born Kathleen O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011) was an English singer who was one of the most prominent faces of British light entertainment in the early and mid-1960s, known for the million-selling hits "Dance On" and "Secret Love", her own BBC television series, and a second-place finish for the United Kingdom at the 1965 [Eurovision Song Contest](https://www.edgepedia.org/eurovision-song-contest).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/) Her platinum-blonde image drew frequent comparisons to [Marilyn Monroe](https://www.edgepedia.org/marilyn-monroe), and she was dubbed "The Golden Girl of Pop".[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name and dates | Kathleen O'Rourke, born 20 October 1938 in Ilford, Essex; died 19 May 2011 in Twickenham, London, aged 72[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/) |
| Biggest hits | "Secret Love" (No 4, 1963), "Let Me Go, Lover" (No 10, 1964), "Dance On" (No 11, 1963), "You're the One" (No 17, 1964)[2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/) |
| Chart totals | 2 UK Top 10 singles, 5 Top 40 singles, 48 weeks in the Top 40; one Top 40 album[2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/) |
| Eurovision 1965 | "I Belong", Naples, 20 March 1965: 2nd place with 26 points, behind Luxembourg's France Gall[4](https://www.eurovision.com/eurovision-song-contest/naples-1965/participants/kathy-kirby/) |
| Television | *The Kathy Kirby Show*, first broadcast 3 May 1964; her Saturday primetime show drew audiences of more than 20 million[5](https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/kathy-kirby-show-the/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) |
| Poll recognition | Voted Top British Female Singer of 1963 by New Musical Express readers[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) |
| Retirement | Final cabaret appearance in Blackpool in 1983[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) |
## Early life and Bert Ambrose
Born Kathleen O'Rourke in Ilford, Essex, on London's eastern outskirts, Kirby was the first of three children born to Irish parents; after their father abandoned the household, Eileen, her mother, raised the children by herself.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) She was convent-educated and trained as a singer with an operatic career in mind, winning her first talent contest at the age of three.[6](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10179/kathy-kirby-kathleen-orourke) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) After leaving school in 1954 she sang semi-professionally while working as a telephonist at the *Ilford Recorder* newspaper.[7](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kathy-kirby-singer-best-known-for-secret-love-and-her-appearance-in-the-eurovision-song-contest-2287207.html)
**Bert Ambrose.** Her break came through the veteran bandleader Bert Ambrose, one of Britain's leading big-band figures. Her stepfather, who worked at a Mayfair hotel, mentioned her talent to Ambrose, a regular customer; at the Ilford Palais in 1956 the 16-year-old Kirby introduced herself between sets and asked for a guest spot.[8](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/programmes/articles/40JkxPpn5DcW1bD1Ps4SXhw/kathy-kirby) Ambrose was impressed enough to sign her to a management contract and make her the featured singer with his orchestra, and he secured her first recording deal with [Pye Records](https://www.edgepedia.org/pye-records).[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) Despite an age gap of about four decades, Ambrose became her mentor, manager, and lover, a relationship kept hidden from the press until his death in 1971.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [8](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/programmes/articles/40JkxPpn5DcW1bD1Ps4SXhw/kathy-kirby)
## Recording career
Her early Pye singles, beginning with "Love Can Be" in 1960, made little impression. After switching to Decca in 1962, she scored her first hit with "Dance On", a vocal version of the Shadows' instrumental number one, which reached No 11 in 1963.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/) Her dramatic remake of "Secret Love", which [Doris Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/doris-day) had taken to number one in 1954, reached No 4 in late 1963 and sold around a million copies alongside "Dance On".[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [5](https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/kathy-kirby-show-the/) Two further Top 20 hits followed: "Let Me Go, Lover" (No 10) and "You're the One" (No 17), both in 1964.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/)
1963 was her peak year: in addition to the hits, readers of the *New Musical Express* voted her Top British Female Singer.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) Her album *Kathy Kirby Sings 16 Hits from Stars and Garters*, drawn from the TV variety series where she was the featured star through 1963 and 1964, reached No 11 on the album chart in early 1964.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) • [2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/)
## Television and Eurovision
Kirby was a fixture of 1960s light entertainment television, appearing on *Ready Steady Go!*, *Thank Your Lucky Stars*, and *Sunday Night at the London Palladium*.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) The BBC gave her her own program, *The Kathy Kirby Show*, first broadcast on Sunday 3 May 1964 and produced by Ernest Maxin, live from the BBC Television Theatre in Shepherds Bush; the show moved to Saturday nights and ran for two years, with guests including Tom Jones, Billy Fury, Lonnie Donegan, and [Dave Allen](https://www.edgepedia.org/dave-allen-comedian).[5](https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/kathy-kirby-show-the/) Her Saturday evening primetime show drew audiences of more than 20 million.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary)
**Eurovision 1965.** In the show of 29 January 1965, Kirby sang six candidate songs for Britain's Eurovision entry, with viewers voting by post, a format the BBC used for the first time that year; "I Belong", written by Peter Lee Stirling and Phil Peters, won with 110,495 votes.[5](https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/kathy-kirby-show-the/) • [9](https://www.songs4europe.com/1965/) At the contest in Naples on 20 March 1965, conducted by Eric Robinson, "I Belong" finished second with 26 points, behind Luxembourg's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" sung by [France Gall](https://www.edgepedia.org/france-gall).[4](https://www.eurovision.com/eurovision-song-contest/naples-1965/participants/kathy-kirby/) • [1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) The single reached only No 36 in the UK chart and was her last chart entry.[7](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kathy-kirby-singer-best-known-for-secret-love-and-her-appearance-in-the-eurovision-song-contest-2287207.html) • [6](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10179/kathy-kirby-kathleen-orourke)
She also appeared at the [Royal Variety Performance](https://www.edgepedia.org/royal-variety-performance); the Guardian obituary places this in 1964, while the National Portrait Gallery and AllMusic describe a Royal Command Performance appearance in 1965.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [6](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10179/kathy-kirby-kathleen-orourke) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) A second BBC series, *Kathy Kirby Sings*, followed, and she recorded the theme to the television series *Adam Adamant Lives!* in 1966.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) • [8](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/programmes/articles/40JkxPpn5DcW1bD1Ps4SXhw/kathy-kirby)
## Decline and later life
Kirby's chart career ended almost as quickly as it had risen. She was swamped by Merseybeat and the newer British pop of the mid-1960s, and her glamorous image dated quickly; the writer Bob Stanley observes that her look and sound "weren't built for the Twiggy era".[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) • [8](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/programmes/articles/40JkxPpn5DcW1bD1Ps4SXhw/kathy-kirby) She left Decca for Columbia in 1967, but none of her singles, albums, or EPs on the new label charted.[3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721)
Behind the scenes her affairs deteriorated. She was regularly claimed to be the highest-paid female singer in Britain, at one point paying nineteen shillings and sixpence of every pound she earned in tax, but Ambrose, a compulsive gambler, had lost almost all of her money, by her own account more than five million pounds.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [10](https://spiderdesign.me.uk/kathykirby/stories.html) When Ambrose died in 1971, just as she was negotiating a move into films, she was left to arrange his funeral, and a slow descent into bankruptcy and obscurity followed.[8](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/programmes/articles/40JkxPpn5DcW1bD1Ps4SXhw/kathy-kirby) • [3](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721) She toured with [Cliff Richard](https://www.edgepedia.org/cliff-richard), Arthur Askey, and Tom Jones, starred in seaside summer shows at [Blackpool](https://www.edgepedia.org/blackpool) and Brighton, and toured Australia and South Africa, but her live appearances wound down to a final cabaret show in Blackpool in 1983.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) • [2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/)
She was married for several years to Fred Pye, a writer and former policeman; after the marriage ended she lived as a near-recluse in west London.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) In the internet era she was reunited with the family she had largely left for Ambrose, and a niece, Claudia, who had married Lord Rothermere, helped her sort out her financial affairs.[8](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/programmes/articles/40JkxPpn5DcW1bD1Ps4SXhw/kathy-kirby) She died of a heart attack at [Brinsworth House](https://www.edgepedia.org/brinsworth-house) care home in [Twickenham](https://www.edgepedia.org/twickenham) on 19 May 2011.[2](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/)
## Legacy
A biography, *Secrets, Loves and Lip Gloss*, written by the actor James Harman, was published in 2005; Harman became her manager, set up a website, and encouraged record companies to reissue her 1960s recordings. The revival of interest reinforced her reputation as a gay icon, and musicals based on her life have been attempted; the career of the main character in [Ray Davies](https://www.edgepedia.org/ray-davies)'s musical *Come Dancing* has some similarities to hers.[1](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary) A stage play, *Whatever Happened to Kathy Kirby?*, was staged by London's New Stagers Theatre Club in 1996.[7](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kathy-kirby-singer-best-known-for-secret-love-and-her-appearance-in-the-eurovision-song-contest-2287207.html) The National Portrait Gallery holds four portraits of her, including photographs by David Wedgbury and Charles Adams.[6](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10179/kathy-kirby-kathleen-orourke)
## References
1. [Dave Laing, "Kathy Kirby obituary", The Guardian, 20 May 2011](https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/may/20/kathy-kirby-obituary)
2. [Kathy Kirby, full Official Chart history, Official Charts Company](https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/10793/kathy-kirby/)
3. [Kathy Kirby biography by Sharon Mawer, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kathy-kirby-mn0000524721)
4. [Kathy Kirby, United Kingdom, Naples 1965, eurovision.com](https://www.eurovision.com/eurovision-song-contest/naples-1965/participants/kathy-kirby/)
5. [The Kathy Kirby Show, Nostalgia Central](https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/kathy-kirby-show-the/)
6. [Kathy Kirby (Kathleen O'Rourke), National Portrait Gallery](https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp10179/kathy-kirby-kathleen-orourke)
7. [Alan Clayson, "Kathy Kirby: Singer best known for 'Secret Love'", The Independent, 21 May 2011](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/kathy-kirby-singer-best-known-for-secret-love-and-her-appearance-in-the-eurovision-song-contest-2287207.html)
8. [Bob Stanley, "Kathy Kirby", BBC Radio 2, Sounds of the 60s with Tony Blackburn](https://bbcinsight.pages.dev/programmes/articles/40JkxPpn5DcW1bD1Ps4SXhw/kathy-kirby)
9. [A Song for Europe 1965, songs4europe.com](https://www.songs4europe.com/1965/)
10. [Stories and facts about Kathy Kirby, official website](https://spiderdesign.me.uk/kathykirby/stories.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musicians and ensembles › Individual musical biographies › Pop and R&B singer-songwriters › Traditional pop and vocal standards*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license