Petula Clark

Petula Clark has been in the entertainment business an amazing sixty years, has recorded in excess of 1,000 songs, sold more than 70 million records, appeared in over thirty films on both sides of the Atlantic as well as gracing the musical stage both here in the UK and in the States.

Petula’s 'Live at The Paris Olympia' is a brand new live CD and Silver Screen DVD of the same name featuring music from her Paris concert in September 2003.

Petula Clark is one of Britain's most successful solo performers of the 20th century. She has been a massive star since World War II when she began her career at the age of eight, as a child entertainer for the British troops, on stage, screen, TV, radio and in the charts. Her career has involved acting, recording, playwriting and songwriting. She has sung critically acclaimed theatrical performances to sell out concerts around the world, and has made brand new recordings in the 21st century that are among the best of her career.

Petula The Early Years
Petula Sally Olwen Clark was born in Ewell, Surrey. She was a musical child who sang at school concerts and in chapel. During World War II, she performed over 200 shows for the Allied forces around England becoming the "Singing Sweetheart" for American soldiers abroad. The 40s and 50s saw Petula on radio and early TV shows, hosting her own series Pet's Parlour. In 1949, Petula recorded her first song 'Music, Music, Music,' and sixty years and over 1,000 song, in five languages, later she's still going strong!

Petula - The Singer
Petula's total world album record sales are now in excess of seventy million. She has scored 28 smash hit singles in the UK and 15 Top 40 hits in the USA, not to mention hits in France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Italy, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, Denmark, South Africa and Belgium. Petula has worked with some of the most respected names in music for example, John Lennon, Tom Jones, Cliff Richard, Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, Lou Rawls, Quincy Jones, Michael McDonald, Peggy Lee, Perry Como, Sacha Distel, Harry Belafonte, Richard Carpenter and David Cassidy. One of her biggest hits, 'This Is My Song', was written by Charlie Chaplin.

John Lennon cited her as his favourite female singer and she sang on his famous anti-war hit 'Give Peace A Chance', also appearing in the memorable film of John and Yoko's famous Montreal hotel "bed-in".

1957 saw the beginning of her successful French career, in which she rivalled the legendary Edith Piaf. In 1961, she married French PR man Claude Wolff and they now have three children; Bara, Kate and Patrick. Petula became the first English performer to achieve massive success in France, singing in the native language.

She was the first British female artist to receive a US Grammy with 'Downtown' in 1965, which made her the first British female singer since Vera Lynn to top the US singles charts, and then again with 'I Know A Place'. Both Grammies were for best rock 'n' roll records of the year. She was subsequently the first British female singer to top the American charts twice with 'Downtown', & 'My Love', and the first ever female singer to hit the US Top 3 with her first and second hits ('Downtown' and 'I Know A Place').

Petula Star of Stage & Screen
As an actress, Petula has worked with legends of stage and screen such as Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, Fred Astaire, Peter O'Toole, Honor Blackman and Francis Ford Coppola. In 1944, Petula made her first movie and has since appeared in over 30 British and American films including the popular Huggetts series and big-budget late 60s Hollywood musicals, Finian's Rainbow and Goodbye Mr. Chips.

Petula became a household name in the 60s in the US by performing on dozens of top TV programmes like The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show and The Andy Williams Show.

On TV, Petula has hosted several award-winning variety series in the UK and three US TV specials. During an NBC special in '68 she made a stand for racial equality when she touched Harry Belafonte during a song and wouldn't let the network cut it. On stage, Petula has won several awards. In London, she acted in The Sound Of Music and her own Someone Like You (co written with Dee Shipman and Fay Weldon) in the 80s. In the 90s, she starred on Broadway in Blood Brothers, and Andrew Lloyd Webber's hit musical, Sunset Boulevard as Norma Desmond, which successfully toured the States.

Petula's private life
Petula now lives in Geneva and lives apart from her husband Claude. As a result of her globe-trotting career her family life is 'far-flung'. Her second daughter, she says is pure Parisian, her son lives in Geneva but spends a lot of time in the States and her eldest daughter is in New York. Despite being close to all of her children Petula has had to face accusations by her eldest daughter Bara, that she put her career before her family. As a result of this Bara began taking marijuana at 14 and by the time she was 19 she was on heroin. The recovery for Bara was slow and painful but accompanied by her mother she attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings for years. Bara married the French interior designer Baron Robert de Cabrol in 1997 and now has 2 children Anabel and Sebastian.

Petula's career cost her life's biggest relationship. Although she and husband Claude Wolff are still married - they wed 40 years ago - they live separate lives. Both partners have relationships with other people and Petula insists their 'friendship' works well. She has been quoted as saying, "I haven't thought about marrying again. I'm still married and neither of us wants to get divorced, that's the truth of it. I think we would find it too traumatising."

Petula's philosophy on her life
Petula puts her youthful energy down to living in the moment, and has been quoted as saying, "I'm not constantly going back, looking over my shoulder all of the time, I don't think I've ever been ambitious, digging my heels in and saying I'm going to get that. I've just concentrated on what I've been doing at the time, then walking on to the next thing."

Inquire about Petula Clark at our Contact Us page.

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Petula's video clips are longer than most of our other artists, so please allow adequate time for the file to download

Sign of the Times
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Downtown
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Sign of the Times
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Downtown
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