| Biography | Kenneth McKellar (23 June 1927, Paisley, Scotland 9 April 2010, Lake Tahoe, California, USA) was a Scottish tenor.
McKellar studied forestry at the University of Aberdeen, after graduation working for the Scottish Forestry Commission. He later trained at the Royal College of Music as an opera singer. He did not enjoy his time with the Carl Rosa Opera Company and left them to pursue a career singing traditional Scottish songs and other works.
He frequently toured the USA and Canada from 1959-1977 with other Scottish entertainers such as Helen McArthur, often appearing in small local venues.
From 1957 he starred each year in innovative pantomimes by Howard & Wyndham Ltd notably at their Alhambra Theatre Glasgow. For a decade from 1960 he starred as Jamie in the new pantomimes devised around him, starting with A Wish For Jamie, followed by A Love For Jamie, which ran at the Alhambra in each of five years, accompanied by Rikki Fulton, and moved after to Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Newcastle. He described these years as the most fulfilling of his stage life outside of his international recording career.
McKellar toured New Zealand in 1964. On many occasions in the 1960s and 1970s he appeared on the BBC Television Hogmanay celebration programme, alongside Jimmy Shand, Andy Stewart and Moira Anderson. He also made numerous appearances on the popular White Heather Club television series (1959-1968), hosted by Andy Stewart. His last Hogmanay Show appearance was on STV in 1991.
In 1965, the BBC selected McKellar to represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest in Luxembourg. He sang five titles from which viewers selected "A Man Without Love" as the 1966 entry. According to author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor's The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History, the Scottish tenor - who had changed into a kilt at the last moment - drew gasps from the audience when he appeared on stage. The song was placed ninth of the eighteen entries, making it the least successful UK placing in the contest until 1978. McKellar received scores from only two countries. The Irish jury gave the UK song top marks, one of only two occasions the Irish have done so in Eurovision history.
"A Man Without Love" peaked at #30 in the UK Singles Chart in March 1966. His albums The World of Kenneth McKellar (1969), and Ecco Di Napoli (1970), had a total of ten weeks presence in the UK Albums Chart. He recorded an album in Afrikaans, entitled Kuier By Ons, which was released just prior to his tour of South Africa in October 1970. |