Tributes paid after Cilla Black dies aged 72

Police in the city of Malaga said Priscilla White (her real name) died in Estapona in the Costa del Sol region.

Spanish police said Sunday that the singer died Saturday at her home in Estepona, southern Spain.

Figures from the world of showbusiness and beyond have paid tribute to Cilla Black, who has died in Spain at the age of 72.

He says: “She always said about me Bobby had sent a guardian angel but the thing is it had a tail and hoofs”.

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said: “I just heard the news Cilla Black has left us”.

Singer Sir Cliff Richard said he will miss his “outrageous” friend dearly who was “full of heart”.

Cilla’s pop career persisted until the end of the 1960s, by which time she was an internationally-acclaimed star, having notably successfully broken into the notoriously hard United States market.

Bruce Forsyth is the latest celebrity to remember Cilla Black, following news of the singer-turned-TV star’s death.

“A natural, natural performer of the highest quality”, he said. She saw her chance when the Cavern became a symbol of all that was fashionable, raw and exciting on the British music scene, and she grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

She started out working in the cloakroom at the Cavern club, where fellow Liverpudlians The Beatles were first spotted, before taking to the stage as a singer herself.

She said: “I wanted to call her after my favourite Aunt Nelly, but when Bobby registered her birth he named her Helen”.

“I am so sad and shocked by news about my good friend Cilla“, Collins wrote.

Dale Winton said Black had been “a dear and close friend” and “the most loyal person”, as well as a “true “star” and genuine national icon”.

Of watching the show, Cilla, she said: “It’s a odd experience seeing other people recreating your life…”

Over the years she notched up 20 top 40 hits. Epstein was unimpressed, but later changed his mind when he heard her singing Bye Bye Blackbird at the Blue Angel Club. “I can’t believe it to tell you the truth”. But her second single the Burt Bacharach-Hal David composition, Anyone Who Had A Heart became the biggest-selling single by a female artist in the history of British popular music.

“She was the girl next door that everybody loved and would have loved as a daughter, a daughter-in-law”.

And in 1997, Cilla was given the honor of the Order of British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of her achievements in the entertainment industry. I’ve had fights over her when we went out in the past.

Meanwhile, her agent, Nick Fiveash, also confirmed Cilla Black’s passing to BBC.

She is survived by three sons, one of whom, Robert, succeeded his father as her manager.

She went on to present the hit television programmes Surprise Surprise and Blind Date.

Surprise! presenter Holly Willoughby posted a photo of her and Black together on the show, writing: “This photo is even more special to me now…”

When Cilla Black achieved her two UK number ones in 1964, the records she knocked off the top of the charts were Diane by the Bachelors and Juliet by the Four Pennies.