21 Facts About Anne Bushnell

Anne Bushnell was an Irish jazz and blues singer and cabaret performer.

Anne Bushnell was born Anne Kavanagh in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin on 28 March 1939.

Anne Bushnell was one of four children of John Kavanagh and Evelyn.

Anne Bushnell's father was a motor mechanic with a business on Arnott Street, Portobello, with the family living in Milltown.

Anne Bushnell attended the St Louis convent school in Rathmines, where she performed in plays and musicals and sang in the school choir.

Anne Bushnell was a salesman who shared her interest in music.

Anne Bushnell had continued to perform in amateur musicals, and from the early 1960s she sang with an Irish ceili band.

Anne Bushnell competed in the national song contest in 1968 singing Ballad to a Boy, and became a resident singer in the RTE Light Orchestra.

Anne Bushnell was a regular guest on RTE television variety shows from 1970, including hosting Girls, girls, girls.

From 1972 to 1974, Anne Bushnell was part of a group called Family Pride, which was a group of session musicians who recorded together regularly.

Anne Bushnell represented Ireland at a number of international contests and festivals as a solo artist, releasing a few singles and an unsuccessful album with CBS Records, Are you ready.

Anne Bushnell was a backing singer for two of Ireland's entries to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 and 1980.

Anne Bushnell was a regular in stage musicals from the mid to later 1970s, in productions such as the tribute shows to Jacques Brel and Bing Crosby, sometimes performing alongside her brother John Kavanagh.

In 1984 Anne Bushnell starred in a musical based on the life of Edith Piaf, No regrets, written specially for her by Leland Bardwell.

Anne Bushnell was lauded for capturing Piaf's stage presence and husky voice.

Anne Bushnell reworked it into a successful one-woman show called The Little Sparrow, and devised a one-woman tribute to Judy Garland.

Anne Bushnell's cabaret act in the late 1980s was highly successful, featuring big numbers by Brel, Garland, and Piaf.

Anne Bushnell struggled with depression brought on initially by an underactive thyroid, and later exacerbated by her father's death and her husband's unemployment in the late 1980s.

Anne Bushnell continued to sing regularly until her death, often at events for charity.

Anne Bushnell was awarded the Cheshire Foundation award in 1994 for her charitable work.

Anne Bushnell died on 21 April 2011 in Tallaght Hospital, County Dublin of cancer, and was cremated at Mount Jerome Crematorium.