Singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul, who scored top 10 hits, wrote TV themes and represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest, has died at the age of 64.
The star, whose biggest hit Sugar Me got to number five in the singles chart in 1972 just a year after she had launched her music career, died in hospital yesterday, her agent confirmed.
She had complained of severe headaches and it is understood she might have suffered a brain haemorrhage.
De Paul teamed up with Mike Moran as the UK entry for Eurovision in 1977, staged at Wembley Conference Centre, and finished in second place with Rock Bottom.
Her five top 20 hits also included the theme tune she composed for ITV sitcom No Honestly, which starred Pauline Collins and John Alderton.
Vegetarian de Paul had been seen in recent years in celebrity editions of TV shows such as Come Dine With Me and Cash In The Attic, and she also acted in the Stephen Fry drama Kingdom.
Her friend, broadcaster and campaigner Esther Rantzen, paid tribute, saying: "She was a renaissance woman. She could do everything - she could sing, she could compose, she was an immensely talented artist.
"She became a huge star but she was also a loyal and generous friend. It's an absolutely tragic loss."
De Paul wrote the theme to Rantzen's BBC1 series Hearts Of Gold, among the many shows to which she contributed, which also included the revival of sitcom The Rag Trade. She famously appeared at the Conservative Party conference in 1983, performing a song she had written about the party.
A one-time holder of the Rear Of The Year title, she was romantically linked with figures such as Hollywood stars James Coburn and Dudley Moore.
Her agent Michael Joyce said: "Although she was small in stature, she was very big in positive personality. She was always so positive about everything."
He added that her family had requested privacy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article