Google doodle celebrates Evelyn Dove’s 117th Birthday

Dove career marked height in 1939 when she started broadcasting with the BBC. Dove sang with Black jazz revues like the Chocolate Kiddies, gaining worldwide exposure.

British singer and actress Evelyn Mary Dove built a solid reputation in Britain through her work with the BBC in the 1940s, and become a first black singer on BBC Radio, opening doors for women of colour in the entertainment industry. Dove also performed internationally, travelling to France, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, Hungary, the United States, India and Spain. Today Google celebrates Evelyn Dove’s 117th Birthday with a doodle.

Dove born in 1902 in London was the daughter of leading Sierra Leonean barrister Francis (Frans) Dove and his first wife Augusta, née Winchester. Evelyn Dove studied singing, piano, and elocution at the Royal Academy of Music from 1917 until 1919 when she graduated, and on 27 September that year married Milton Alphonso Luke in London.

Dove visited Bombay, India, on 7 October 1937 where 'The Evening News of India' reviewed her opening night performance at the Harbour Bar: "She is an artist of international reputation, one of the leading personalities of Europe's entertainment world. She is described as the closest rival of the great Josephine Baker herself. Evelyn didn't get just the big hand. She got an ovation, a roaring welcome."

Dove career marked height in 1939 when she started broadcasting with the BBC. Dove sang with Black jazz revues like the Chocolate Kiddies, gaining worldwide exposure.

Later after leaving the BBC in 1949, Dove worked in cabaret in India, Paris and Spain.

Evelyn Dove died on 7 March 1987 at Horton Hospital in Epsom, Surrey.