Lena Zavaroni: Tragedy waited in the wings for angelic singer

In her case, the illness’s origin lay in early showbiz pressure. For 22 years, it made her life difficult and frequently miserable. 

Zavaroni’s first steps into the spotlight began when she was just 10, appearing on television’s Opportunity Knocks, a precursor of Britain’s Got Talent and Pop Idol. She won the show for a record-breaking five weeks running.

Before long, she was singing for Queen Elizabeth and for US president Gerald Ford at the White House. 

Towards the end she was living on state benefits and stood accused of stealing a packet of jelly.

Lena Zavaroni’s short and tragic life began in Greenock on November 4, 1963.

Thereafter, she grew up on a council estate in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, where her parents owned a fish and chip shop. Her father Victor played the guitar, mother Hilda (née Jordan) sang. Her grandfather Alfredo had emigrated from Italy.

In the summer of 1973, while – aged 9 – she was singing in a band with her father and uncle, the record producer Tommy Scott, holidaying on the island, saw her and contacted music executive Phil Solomon, whose partner Dorothy became Zavaroni’s manager.

The young girl’s fateful Opportunity Knocks appearance took place the following year when she sang what would become her biggest hit: Ma! He’s Making Eyes At Me. 

The album of the same name that followed, a collection of popular standards, reached number eight in the UK chart. She was the youngest artist ever to have an album in the top 10.

Sang with Sinatra
The year 1974 put Lena on an incredible trajectory. She made her first appearance on Top of the Pops, and sang at a Hollywood charity show with Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball.

Ball told her: “You’re special. Very special and very, very good.” Following this, Zavaroni appeared on The Carol Burnett Show, The Cher Show, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

In the last named, she performs with apparently effortless confidence, showcasing an amazing voice that for a young girl veered remarkably towards the husky depths. 

After performing, she skips to her seat for the interview. Carson says: “All of a sudden you’re a little girl again …” Thereafter, she did a Donald Duck impression and screwed up her face at the thought of boys.

She travelled to Japan, recording and singing Ma! in Japanese, earning much local appreciation and a number one hit. She also toured South America and all over Europe, in a dizzying experience for one so young.

Back home, she appeared on The Morecambe and Wise Show, The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club, and the 1976 Royal Variety Show, where she was the youngest person ever to top the bill.

Later, talking about the impact of her overnight success, she said: “Everything changed so quickly. I had never seen lifts or escalators or even traffic lights. I went from a council house on an isolated island to a posh hotel in Piccadilly, with shopping trips to Harrods.”

‘Slimmer’s disease’
THERE was, of course, a price to pay. By the age of 13, with her third album hitting the charts, she was suffering from anorexia nervosa (and by 15 from associated depression). Barely known or understood back then, anorexia was dubbed “the slimmer’s disease”.

One television interview host said it must at least save on restaurant bills, while another advised her to get back to “your chunky self”.

Zavaroni attended London’s Italia Conti Academy stage school, becoming long-term friends with Bonnie Langford, with whom she appeared in The Lena And Bonnie Easter Special on TV. But, even while at stage school, Lena’s weight dropped to four stone. She was only 4ft 10in tall.

Still, the shows must go on. In 1978, she had her first solo TV show, Lena Zavaroni On Broadway, followed in 1979 by Lena Zavaroni And Music, then from 1980 to 1982 by another show simply titled Lena. 

All the while she suffered from the eating disorder and by 1989 – another fateful year – had begun a slow but steady withdrawal from showbiz.

In 1989, her mother Hilda died of a tranquilliser overdose. Then a fire destroyed all the singer’s mementoes. That year, she also married businessman Peter Wiltshire. 

The couple settled in north London and, in an interview a fortnight after the wedding, Zavaroni said she felt “fit and well now”. 

However, the marriage lasted only 18 months, with Wiltshire saying he was fed up eating on his own.

In that TV interview the singer said anorexia was not just about eating but about “feelings”. 

She talked about the demands on women appearance-wise and, in a later interview, said her illness’s roots lay in pressures to squeeze into outfits when she was just a growing girl. 

She explained: “I only became fanatical about not eating when the pressure got too much. I just wanted to have a nice shape.”

Lena’s last TV appearance came in July 1993 on the TV show Summer Praise, where she sang One Day At A Time. 

Her latter days were spent at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, near her father and his second wife. She lived on state benefit in a council flat.

Depression surgery
In 1999, the year she was accused of stealing jelly (charge later dropped), she insisted on undergoing a neurological operation for depression, threatening to kill herself if she could not have it.

The operation itself seemed to have gone so well that she even talked about returning to the stage.

However, three weeks later, she developed a chest infection, her weight fell to less than five stone, and on October 1 at the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff she died from bronchial pneumonia. 

Lena’s father Victor and his wife, and the singer’s sister Carla, were with her when she died.

Her cousin Margaret said: “I would say that her anorexia controlled her for the past 20 years. Our only comfort is that other girls with anorexia will take something from Lena’s death. She is an example of what can happen when young women develop an obsession with their weight.”

The charity Beat Eating Disorders has a helpline on 0808 801 0432. You can also mail: Scotlandhelp@beateatingdisorders.org.uk