Born on February 26: Sandie Shaw, the barefoot English singer

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The British singer, a legendary figure from the swinging sixties and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967, was born in 1947 in the outer suburbs of London

She started working as a typist at a young age in a Ford car factory in her hometown of Dagenham back when typewriters clacked away happily. With her pretty face, she landed a few modelling gigs for ads. Her distinctive voice also impressed those around her, earning her a spot in a local talent competition. That's when people started to take notice of her, and before you knew it, she was off to success. Her second single, "(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me", a cover of a Burt Bacharach tune, gave her her big break in 1964. The song became a classic of its time.

Still a very wise and a heroine of swinging London alongside the likes of Twiggy and Mary Quant, the inventor of the mini skirt, Sandie Shaw has had a string of hits with, for example, "Long Live Love" or the famous "Puppet On A String" which doesn't really resemble her but with which she won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967. She'd often appear on stage barefoot, earning her the nickname "the singer with bare feet". It was common in the 60s for female performers to be asked to sing in German, Spanish, and especially French, as was the case for many female singers at the time. The result often bordered on a cheeky kitsch that Petula Clark wouldn't have denied.

After the whirlwind of the 60s, the public gradually lost interest in the artist. Sandra Shaw then tried new experiences by illustrating children's books and writing a musical comedy. In the early 80s, Chrissie Hynde first asked her to join her with The Pretenders.

A year later, Morrissey and Johnny Marr, then respectively the singer and guitarist of the Smiths, convinced her to record her version of their iconic "Hand In Glove". Thus dubbed, she went back to the recording studios and the album "Hello Angel" finally saw the light of day in 1988.

Today, in Italian, Spanish, French, or English, she's stoked to have got her music back in 2002, and now she only plays for the fun of it, just as an amateur.

MH with AK - Photo: Etienne Tordoir ( MH with AK - Photo: Etienne Tordoir )

Photo: Portrait of Sandie Shaw at the Astoria Hotel in Brussels (Belgium) on July 18, 1984 for the promotion of the 45 rpm single Hand In Glove on the Rough Trade label

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