Lena Zavaroni

Lena Zavaroni (b.04 November 1963, d. 01 October 1999) was a British child-star singer and television show host. At the age of ten she was the youngest person in history to have an album, Ma! (He's Making Eyes at Me), in the top ten of the UK Albums Chart. She later starred in her own television show.

Zavaroni made her breakthrough in 1974, appearing on ITV talent show Opportunity Knocks, hosted by Hughie Green. She won the show for a record-breaking five weeks running. Her debut single, a cover of the popular standard Ma! (He's Making Eyes At Me) reached no.10 in the UK in February 1974, while the parent album of the same name reached no.10 the following month.[1]

She made several TV guest appearances in 1975 and 1976 and in 1978 she was the star of her own On Broadway with Lena Zavaroni (BBC One) and Lena and Bonnie (ITV) with fellow child-star Bonnie Langford (b.1964). In 1979 she was given her own show Lena Zavaroni and Music on BBC One, followed by Lena on the same channel from 1980-83 (three seasons). In August 1993 she appeared on Summer Praise (a summer edition of Songs of Praise) where she sang "..on television for the first time in six years..".

From the age of thirteen, Zavaroni suffered from anorexia nervosa and later also developed clinical depression. She died of pneumonia at the age of thirty-five.