Scottish pop star Lulu announces retirement from touring after over 60 years in the spotlight

It has been announced that Lulu is to retire from touring after an incredible 60 year career.

The 'Shout' singer has a small tour booked for April 2024, which will include performances at Glenrothes, Aberdeen, and Glasgow in Scotland before she heads down south.

After dates in Gateshead, Southampton, and Birmingham the final show of the Champagne for Lulu tour will conclude at London's famous Palladium on April 17 which the 75-year-old has said will be her last ever.

Speaking to broadcaster and former Tory MP Gyles Brandreth on his Rosebud podcast, Lulu said: “This is actually – I’m announcing it for the first time now – this is my farewell tour, with family, and friends.

“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.

“But then I turned 75, and I thought, 'You know what, I want to carry on working, but I want to do it a different way’."

The final show will come sixty years after the release of her debut hit single "Shout" which peaked at number seven in the UK charts in 1964.

Lulu who was born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie is one of Glasgow’s best known singers having been brought up in the East End of the city. She first shot to fame during the early sixties when she was signed to Decca Records at the age of 15.

She would go on to win the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest five years later with the tune “Boom Bang-a-Bang” and also have major chart success with the title song for the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. It wouldn’t be until later in her career that she would score her first UK number one hit as she guested on a cover version of Dan Hartman’s “Relight My Fire” with boy band Take That.

Speaking about her final remaining dates on the tour, she said: "I'm not going to tell you exactly what I'm going to do, but of course I'll have to do Boom Bang-a-Bang.

“The audience want to do it by themselves anyway. You can't not give people what they want – and more. If you've ever seen me on tour, just let me say, you won't have seen me like this.”