Writer & Broadcaster

Lucy O’Brien is the author of Madonna: Like An Icon (2018), which was translated into 13 languages. She also wrote She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music (published in three editions). It inspired the 2002 Radio 2 series She Bop, and two exhibitions: She Bop at the National Portrait Gallery in 2001, and She-Bop-A-Lula, at the Strand Gallery, 2012.

She collaborated with Alison Goldfrapp for the chapter: 'Country Girl: Rural Feminism in the Performance of Alison Goldfrapp', in Mute Records: Artists, Business, History (2018). She has also contributed to Gina Arnold and George McKay's forthcoming essay collection on punk (due 2020), and Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music: Performance, Authority, Authenticity (2016).

Dusty, her classic biography of 60s pop legend Dusty Springfield, was recently revised and updated for a new 2019 edition. She has also written the in-depth biography Annie Lennox. She’s worked for the music press since the 1980s, starting on NME and contributing to a range of titles including Q, Mojo, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Quietus.

Lucy has acted as a consultant and guest contributor in television and radio, for example on Channel 4 News, BBC Radio 4 - Woman’s Hour, Radio London and numerous BBC 4 documentaries. She also co-produced Righteous Babes, the 1998 Channel 4 film about rock and new feminism.

She currently teaches at London College of Music, UWL, and was Course Leader for BA (Hons) Music Journalism and BA (Hons) Music Marketing & Promotion courses at UCA,

She also taught Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, University of Westminster, and Southampton Solent University. Her specialist research areas are music subcultures and scenes, feminism and popular culture, writing and publishing biography. And back in the late 70s/early 80s, Lucy played and sang in all-girl punk band The Catholic Girls.