Yana

Yana (born Pamela Guard; 16 February 1931 – 21 November 1989) was a British singer, best known for her television appearances in the late 1950s.

Early life and work Yana was born Pamela Guard on 16 February 1931, in Billericay, Essex (her later publicity people thought that it sounded more interesting to describe her as "Cornish-born"). As a teenager, she became a hairdresser's assistant, and then a fashion model at the Gaby Young modelling agency.

Her singing career started when Bertie Green, the owner of the plush Astor Club in London, heard her (aged 19) singing at a private party in the club, her friends having dared her to get up and sing; Green booked her as a cabaret artiste. She also sang, from 1954, at the expensive Pigalle restaurant in Piccadilly.

Peak fame

The peak of Yana's fame came in the years 1955–1960, when she appeared in her own BBC TV show, The Yana Show (1956), as well as on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Bob Hope Show in the United States.

In 1956, she sang in a cameo role in the film The Cockleshell Heroes,

Over the following year, Yana made over 200 TV appearances in the US, Canada and Mexico. She was famous enough by then to be mentioned briefly in American newspapers without needing much introduction, as when the gossip columnist of the Milwaukee Sentinel, Earl Wilson, whose column was syndicated throughout the US, noted (in March 1956) that "the shapely British singer, Yana, is being sought by Columbia Pictures". She was read about in provincial American towns such as Sarasota, Florida as well as in Hollywood and New York City.

Yana's biggest success as a singer was with "Climb Up the Wall", which is regarded as one of the top 30 British popular songs of the 1950s; despite that and her other recordings (Columbia Records and His Master's Voice, mostly), it has been said that Yana's earnings from records totalled only about £100 in the money of the time, by reason of the contractual arrangements typically in place for UK recording artists of that era.

The Yana Show was not very successful; it was pulled after less than a dozen episodes. Despite its short run, the show did feature not only famous entertainers of the day, but one or two whose major fame came later, such as the diminutive comedian Ronnie Corbett. Corbett, in his autobiography, High Hopes, described Yana as "the glamorous blonde singer who specialised in plunging necklines and was a tremendous success in the '50s and '60s. But her career had its ups and downs – unlike her neckline, which mostly had its downs".

Yana appeared in several pantomimes

Personal and later life Yana kept much of her private life private. She was married three times:

Yana's style was ultra-feminine even by the standards of the 1950s, and was markedly exuberant. She kissed the Lord Mayor of Newcastle repeatedly during a performance of "Climb Up the Wall" and, when councillors complained at the loss of civic dignity, offered to visit Newcastle and kiss all of them if they were jealous. She went about with an entourage of white poodles, offered to lend the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin her car (personalised numberplate YG1) when he visited London in 1961 and, when asked in 1956 what she would do when she visited Hollywood, replied, "buy myself a monkey, darling – I am crazy about animals!" The Daily Telegraph described her at the London Palladium in 1957, "encased in a white gown that fitted like a bandage".