The singer Lena Martell, who has died aged 86, enjoyed a career that took her from dance halls in her native Scotland to cabaret in London and stages in Las Vegas and Australia. She performed on the same bill as Sammy Davis Jr and had her own shows on BBC television.
On record, she was a one-hit wonder in Britain with One Day at a Time, a song written by Marijohn Wilkin and Kris Kristoffersonthat mixed country and gospel. “Lord, for my sake, teach me to take one day at a time,” she sang.
It stayed at No 1 for three weeks in 1979, ahead of Michael Jackson and Abba, making Martell Scotland’s first solo female singer to top the singles chart. The song, which sold 2.5m copies worldwide, had been released two years earlier without making ripples. When it was re-promoted and captured the public’s imagination, Martell said: “I’m happy about the record because its philosophy is cheering people.”
Although she failed to follow it up, she did have half a dozen albums in the Top 40 between 1974 and 1980, featuring her rich contralto voice and easy-listening style, and boosted by her television appearances.
Her own programmes began with Presenting Lena Martell (1971-73), featuring singers such as Vince Hill and Roger Whittaker, and other entertainers, which attracted audiences of more than 12 million and was a perfect fit for the Saturday-night TV of the time. Then came Music with Martell (1974), Make the Music Speak (1977) and Lena’s Music (1979). She described her shows as “informal, light on the eye – and light on the ear as well”.
Her career continued in fits and starts, with bouts of ill health, but she performed into her 70s.
Born Helena Thomson in the Hamiltonhill area of Glasgow, she was the second of three children. Her mother, Helen, supported the family with cleaning and shop work after her father, a trombone-playing shipyard engineer who called his daughter Lena, moved to Canada. Later, a club owner coined the professional name Martell when a member of the audience held up a bottle of brandy.
Aged 11, she started singing with her elder brother Allan, a saxophone and clarinet player, in a Dixie band and learned to play drums. On leaving school, she won a bursary to study at art college, but soon left to work in a printing firm by day while continuing to perform with the band. Then, she became a singer with Billy McGregor and the Gay Birds at the city’s Barrowland ballroom – until it burned down in 1958.
She headed straight for London, took a job in another print works and recorded a single, Tender and True (1959, as Helen Thomson), after coming fourth in the ITV talent show Find the Singer and performing at the Soho venue Jack of Clubs.
Taken on as a singer at the New Bagatelle nightclub in Mayfair in 1960, she gained experience as a compere, then became a star of the cabaret. Jack Fox, the owner, came up with her new name, and the Stage lauded Martell for her “freshness, charm and natural singing”.
In 1961, she appeared on The Friday Show, a BBC television showcase for singers and entertainers, and recorded her first single as Lena Martell, Love Can Be.
Then she starred with Dickie Henderson in the revue Five Past Eight at the Alhambra theatre, Glasgow (1962). Returning to London clubs, she continued her cabaret act at the Colony (1962), starred in the revue Tropical Paradise at the Pigalle (1963) and was acclaimed for her impressions of Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Eartha Kitt and Shirley Bassey.
In 1963, she was the support act on Sammy Davis Jr’s British tour. A billing alongside Morecambe and Wise in a Blackpool summer season followed, when one critic observed that she “makes her impact by sheer force of personality”.
She headed for New York in 1964 to understudy Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in the original Broadway production of the musical Funny Girl. But, when Streisand took a break, a growth on Martell’s vocal cords left her unable to step in and her career was on hold for two years.
At the same time, she was grieving the deaths of both her brother Allan, in a road accident, and her boyfriend Gordon Cameron, from a brain haemorrhage.
Cabaret and revues then kept her busy in London and Scotland, and as far and wide as Las Vegas, Sydney, Johannesburg and Hong Kong. When she sold out the London Palladium in 1978, the London Evening News wrote that Martell and her songs “evoke visions of the days when Vera Lynn was a superstar”.
Over her career, she recorded more than 30 albums featuring cover songs alongside original material.
Another break in her career came when she was diagnosed with breast cancer while caring for her mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Later, in 2008, Martell underwent a triple heart bypass operation.
In 1992, she was made bankrupt after losing money in a property company that went bust.
She lived with her partner, David, until moving into a care home. He predeceased her.
• Lena Martell (Helena Thomson), singer, born 15 May 1940; death announced 5 October 2026
