Biography
Beverley Anne Keenan was born in Liverpool on 12th June 1981, and it has been said that she could sing before she could talk! After watching her first musical, “The Student Prince” at the tender young age of 3, Beverley was hooked. She would sit for hours singing along with her favourite artists, Mario Lanza and Al Jolson, something quite remarkable for such a young girl. After singing to her dolls a young Beverley was overheard by a neighbour who encouraged Beverley’s mother to get in touch with the Liverpool
legend, Hilda Fallon. Under Hilda’s guidance Beverley was regularly performing at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall as well as in local nursing homes and at charity functions.
This was the norm for some time and Beverley’s love for performing grew stronger and stronger, as did her admirers. At the age of 11 Beverley was entering local talent contests and went on to win the grand final of the inaugural North West England talent competition, The Stars of Tomorrow. All her hard work and dedication had now started to be noticed with local newspapers and magazines often doing weekly write-ups on her. When she turned 12, Beverley applied to national talent shows and won the BBC’s, “When Will I Be Famous” series. Beverley was now a regular at national talent competitions and even won the Haven national talent show in Devon Cliffs.
Through the talent competitions, Beverley was noticed by the legendary Liverpudlian comedian and performer Ken Dodd. She was personally invited to tour with Ken, who often referred to her as “Linnet from Lark Lane”. Beverley was often called one of Ken’s ‘Diddy Men’ but then wowed the audience with her performance of the ‘Laughing Song, Die Fledermaus’.
Beverley then realised that she craved more than winning talent competitions and decided she wanted to incorporate dancing into her repertoire. She was then put in contact with Collette Byatt who ran the Chiltern Stage School. Ironically, Collette was one of the judges at a recent talent show which Beverley had won, so offered Beverley a placement at the school. With the Chiltern behind her, Beverley flourished and went on to perform in numerous plays at the famous Liverpool Playhouse and Empire Theatre. She starred in Annie, a Christmas Carol, Robin Hood, plus many more.
These stage performances then naturally progressed her onto television, and Beverley appeared on numerous shows such as Rich Deceiver (BBC), Hearts and Minds (Granada) plus many smaller roles in shows such as Brookside and Hollyoaks. Beverley still now makes guest appearances at the Chiltern’s bi-annual show in the Liverpool Empire Theatre and still today enjoys an exceptionally close relationship with Collette Byatt.
At the age of 16 Beverley won an inaugural Cameron MacIntosh scholarship to attend a world-famous musical theatre school in London. Unfortunately, due to family commitments she was unable to accept the position.
After leaving secondary education Beverley joined Liverpool Theatre School where she studied Musical Theatre for 3 years and gained all her musical qualifications and dancing certificates. With all these experiences and qualifications Beverley was now a veteran of the stage and was able to pass on her knowledge to younger students at the Chiltern Stage School, through teaching singing classes. Some of her previous students include Ray Quinn and Eton Road
(X-Factor)
After fulfilling many of her goals at such a young age, Beverley decided to take a break from Liverpool and try her luck much further afield in Crete, Greece. Beverley was employed as a dancer, but word soon passed around about her other amazing talent, her voice. The owners of the club then persuaded Beverley to sing a spot on her own on a regular basis, where she excelled and gathered a large following. Beverley was eventually employed as a full-time singer and often performed in local theatres and on mini-cruises from the harbour.
The next stage in Beverley’s life led her to the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) where she studied music management for 2 years. Through LIPA, Beverley met an array of musicians and was then approached to be the backing singer, along with her sister Barbara, for China Crisis. Through this, Beverley toured at various venues up and down the UK. After leaving China Crisis, both Beverley and Barbara were approached again to be backing singers, this time for The Farm, who are probably most famous for their number one smash hit, All Together Now. Touring with The Farm has led Beverley to huge sell out gigs both at home and abroad. In 2008 when Liverpool was The European Capital of Culture, Beverley performed with The Farm at the opening ceremony in the Liverpool Echo Arena and on the Plato of St George’s Hall, where they were accompanied by Ringo Starr. Beverley also sung in Dubai
at the Liverpool Music Festival in 2009.
Whilst still touring with The Farm, the group formed The Justice Collective Band, along with various musicians, including Mick Jones (The Clash), Pete Wylie (The Mighty Wah) and John Power (The La’s and Cast). Together, they performed across Europe at numerous gigs supporting The Stone Roses, where various special guests came to sing along, such as Shane McGowan (The Pogues), Eric Cantona plus many others. The result of their hard work, resulted in the collective singing, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”. This song became UK Christmas number one in 2012, where various guest artists joined forces in aid of the Hillsborough tragedy. (Paul McCartney, Gerry Marsden, Paul Heaton plus many others)
During her time with The Farm, Beverley entered another talent competition, this time in 2007 for MTV’s Wannabe series. Beverley went on the win the competition along with 2 other singers, where they were a band called Lady A. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite turn out as expected for the band, but the TV show became the most watched show in British MTV’s history. Also late in 2007, Beverley met her future husband Craig, and they got married 5 years later, in Cyprus and continue to have a happy, loving relationship to this day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannabe_(TV_series)
In 2013 Beverley and her sister, Barbara created a band called Tweeting Jesus, performing their own original material. In October 2014 the band were invited down to Talgarth to perform at Alan McGee’s unsigned night. The feedback received from the performance was exceptional and the band performed again in 2015 after personal invitation from Alan.
Tweeting Jesus continued to perform at various venues until late 2016, when then Beverley became pregnant to her son, River.
Parenthood then took priority in Beverley’s life. When River turned 4 and started school this enabled Bev to invest more time into herself and career. Beverley started studying for her Level 3 Diploma in Supporting Teaching and Learning at St Helen’s College. In June 2023 Beverley successfully completed her level 3 Diploma. Beverley was then employed at a local school, but the music was still missing in her life.
Beverley continued to sing locally and is now performing in various venues across the UK as part of a Soul and Motown tribute alongside her own solo show, a Soul & Motown Diva tribute.
In late 2023 Beverley started performing alongside other talented musicians in various theatres across the UK and Europe as the lead female vocalist in an 80’s tribute band ‘The 80’s Show’, ‘The Smooth Rock’ show and ‘Hairbrush Party Anthems.’
Then, late in 2024 Beverley received a call from a long lost friend, Chris de Brakeleer, asking is she would be interested in a collaboration with one of Chris’s dear friends, Yvan Guilini.
Beverley then spoke with Yvan, who agreed to compose an instrumental piece of music, for Beverley to write lyrics too. This then began a beautiful journey, which has resulted in a song called ‘Daystar’.