Lena Martell obit

Scottish singer Lena Martell dies as tributes paid

 She was not on the list.

Scottish singer Lena Martell has died, as tributes have been paid to the former Broadway star.

Martell was born in Possilpark, Glasgow, and became a success on Broadway and in London's West End.

Her stage name came from an unusual source. Born Helen Thomson, she became "Lena" because her father nicknamed her that, and "Martell" came from the brandy of the same name.

She had a number-one single in 1979, sang alongside Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra, among others, and went on to sell almost 20 million records.

Martell received her first recording contract at 16 and left the UK to appear on Broadway, working alongside superstars Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli; she understudied Streisand in Broadway's Funny Girl.

She was reported to be "homesick" and returned to Glasgow, where she landed her own prime-time Saturday night BBC show in 1971, which ran for 10 years and attracted more than 11 million viewers. At one time, she was one of the country's biggest light entertainment stars of the '70s.

Her number one hit, One Day At A Time, sold 2.5 million copies, a record for any British female singer, and was the first Scottish woman to reach No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart as a solo artist. It won her an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1979 when it stayed in the charts for 36 weeks and spent five weeks at No. 1 in four countries.

Musician Dougie Stevenson toured with Martell and worked with her as Scot Disc's managing director. He said she will be "sadly missed".

Speaking with The Herald, Stevenson said: "Lena really was a great personality and great to work with, both on and off the music.

"We started working with her around 1983/84 and have such great memories of the music and videos we made together.

"I toured with her and was in her band, and there are so many gig memories. She was so full of humour and had ideas all the time for not just music, but plays and sitcoms.

"She'll be sadly missed, especially down at the Barras. She would always be down there with dark glasses, incognito. She really loved Glasgow."

Stevenson said Martell was always proud to have begun singing as a child with her elder brother's band and later performed with the Billy McGregor and Gaybirds the at the Barrowland Ballroom as a singer.

Away from the spotlight, Martell endured significant personal challenges, including cancer, caring for her mother through dementia and major heart surgery, including a triple bypass operation in 2008. She later described herself as living "one day at a time", echoing the title of her most famous song.

It's understood that Martell died peacefully at a care home after a short illness.