Cilla Black statue unveiled in Liverpool

A statue of late British singer and TV personality Cilla Black has been unveiled outside England’s famous Cavern Club in Liverpool.
Cilla, who died aged 72 in 2015, started out as a cloakroom girl at the famous music venue, where The Beatles performed in their early years, before going on to find stardom herself in the mid-1960s.
Her children and grandchildren were present for the unveiling, which was broadcast live on British TV show This Morning on Monday (16Jan17).
Speaking to the show, her son Robert, who also acted as her manager, said his mother would have loved the statue outside the club on Liverpool’s Mathew Street.
“She would’ve burst out laughing and have been thrilled and delighted,” he said. “She would have loved being young… she was very youthful, in her attitude and in the way she lived her life and she would have loved being captured at a time when she was young and everything was happening for her.”
The statue features a young Cilla smiling with her arms open wide, with lyrics from her hits including Anyone Who Had A Heart, Alfie and You’re My World etched into her dress.
Mike McCartney, the brother of The Beatles legend Paul, was also at the ceremony.
The event was held on Monday (16Jan17) to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Cavern Club’s opening. The now legendary music haunt opened its doors as a jazz cellar on 16 January 1957, but the original venue shut down 1973. It reopened in 1984 and was re-built with many of the original bricks.
After making her TV debut in the late ‘60s, Cilla became a popular figure in British light entertainment hosting TV shows such as Blind Date and Surprise Surprise, with both running for nearly 20 years.
She passed away in August 2015 after suffering a fall at her Spanish home. Her funeral was attended by British music legends including Tom Jones and Cliff Richard.