Lena Zavaroni – Scottish singer

Lena Zavaroni was a Scottish singer and TV presenter.
Lena Hilda Zavaroni was born on November 4, 1963 in Rothesay, Isle of Bute. Her mother died in 1989 from an overdose of tranquilizers. Surname Zavaroni is an Italian surname, her grandfather was an emigrant from Italy.
In the summer of 1973, Lena was discovered by producer Tommy Scott, who rested in the town of Rothesay, where Zavaroni lived. Tommy heard Lena’s singing in a band with her father and uncle. Lena’s producer was Dorothy Solomon.
Zavaroni found her way into theatre and television, still the youngest performer ever to top the bill at the London Palladium.

In 1974-1982, Lena released seven solo albums: Ma! (1974), The Lena Zavaroni Collection (1975), The Presenting Lena Zavaroni (1978), The Songs Are Such Good Things 1980), Lena Zavaroni And Her Music (1981) and Hold Tight, It’s Lena (1982).
Lena was a close friend of Bonnie Langford, with whom she participated in the television show Lena and Bonnie.

The girl was diagnosed anorexic at the age of thirteen. Her weight dropped to an alarming 35kg while she was at London’s Italia Conti stage school.
She retired from show business at just twenty-five.
In 1989, Lena married a computer consultant, Peter Wiltshire, the same year Lena’s mother died. In 1991, after parting with her husband, Lena moved to the English city of Hodson to be closer to her father and stepmother.
All this time, Lena continued to be treated for anorexia nervosa, which ultimately upset her psychological state.
Lena Zavaroni was admitted to a Cardiff hospital on 7 September, where it was hoped a last, drastic brain operation would provide a cure. A blood infection caused her heart to fail. The autopsy put Zavaroni’s death down to bronchial pneumonia. She died on October 1, 1999 in Scotland, UK. At the time of her death she weighed only 32 kilograms.

Lena Zavaroni – Scottish singer