Cilla Black has reportedly died in Spain aged 72

Cilla Black has died at the age of 72.

The former singer and TV presenter Cilla Black has died aged 72.

Cilla enjoyed a 50-year showbusiness career from her 1960s singing beginings to becaming a popular TV celebrity on such shows as Blind Date and Surprise Surprise reports the BBC.

She leaves three sons, Robert, Ben and Jack, as well as two grandchildren.

Whilst a post mortem has yet to take place, a police spokesperson said they believed the death to be from natural causes.

In 2013, Black celebrated her 50 years in show business. “Sending all my love to her family. X”.

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

“I am so sad and shocked by news about my good friend Cilla”, she tweeted. The show, called The One & Only Cilla Black, featured Black herself and was hosted by Paul O’Grady.

She branched into acting with 1964’s Ferry Across the Mersey, which featured Gerry & The Pacemakers, also out of Epstein’s stable. It was a shrewd move and, largely through her own sheer drive, she remained at the height of popularity until the end of the century and beyond.

But there was always more to Cilla than her music.

Cilla was awarded an OBE in 1997 and a Bafta Special Award in 2014. In 2005, her autobiography What’s It All About? became a best-seller.

Cilla was married to her manager Bobby Willis for more than 30 years until his death in 1999.

At the time, Cilla told the Daily Mirror: ‘I was looking forward to the sitcom but the week after we filmed the pilot he had heart problems again and we talked it over and just thought, it’s not worth the long hours.

She all but disappeared during the late Seventies and early Eighties, but a fun, flirtatious interview on Wogan in 1983 alerted the British public to what they had been missing.