Words: Tina Edward Gunawardhana
In the early nineties, Sri Lankan-born British singer-songwriter Beverly Craven stormed into the UK music charts with her ballad ‘Promise Me’ which reached number three in the UK singles chart and became a worldwide hit. She followed this up with a string of chart successes including ‘Memories’, ‘Holding On’, ‘Woman to Woman’ and Love Scenes’. In 1992 she was crowned the Best British Newcomer at the Brit Awards. In 1990 Beverly released her self-titled debut album which enjoyed unprecedented success. Within a year the album has been certified double platinum with sales of over one million copies and it went on to spend an incredible 52 weeks in the UK album charts. During her career, she has sold over 4 million records. Born in 1963 in Colombo when her father was employed at Kodak, Beverly returned to the UK along with her family as an infant. Many years later she returned to Sri Lanka on a private visit. In the ensuing years, Beverly went into semi-retirement during which time she successfully battled breast cancer twice, and in 2019 after a double mastectomy returned to touring the UK. In an exclusive interview with Hi!! Beverly shares with us her travel stories and her memories of the land of her birth.
