Vera Lynn Tribute
Here is a famous song from 1954 performed by one of Great Britain's greatest singers, Vera Lynn.
Vera Lynn (born Vera Margaret Welch in 1917) is a British singer whose career flourished during World War II, when she was nicknamed "The Forces' Sweetheart". She is best known for the popular songs "We'll Meet Again" and "The White Cliffs of Dover". She is one of the last surviving major entertainers of the war years. She began singing at the age of seven. Her first radio broadcast was made in 1935. In 1940 she began her own radio series, "Sincerely Yours", sending messages to British troops stationed abroad. In this radio show she and a quartet performed the songs most requested to her by soldiers stationed abroad. She also went into hospitals to interview new mothers and send messages to their husbands overseas. She toured Burma and gave outdoor concerts for soldiers. In 1942 she recorded the song "We'll Meet Again" while making the film of the same name. The nostalgic lyrics had a great appeal to the many people separated from loved ones during the war, and it became one of the emblematic songs of the wartime period. After the war, her "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" became the first record by a British artist to top the US charts, doing so for nine weeks. Lynn's career flourished in the 1950's. In early 1960, Lynn left Decca Records, with whom she had been for nearly 25 years, and joined EMI. Lynn was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1969 and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1975. She sang outside Buckingham Palace in 1995 in a ceremony marking the golden jubilee of VE Day. Lynn, then 78, decided to go out on a high as this is her last known public performance. In 2002 at the age of 85 she hosted a celebrity concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The United Kingdom's VE Day 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 generations always to remember their sacrifice and joined in with a bar or two of "We'll Meet Again".
Enjoy Vera Lynn's great voice and style!
