Millie Small

Millie Small, whose hit song My Boy Lollipop sent ska around the world – obituary

• Millie Small, who has died aged 73, was a singer whose 1964 hit My Boy Lollipop became the first record to popularise ska music around the world; it reached No 2 in both the UK and US charts and went on to sell more than 6 million copies. Millicent Dolly May Small was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, the youngest of 12 children, on October 6 1946; her father was an overseer on a sugar plantation. In 1960 she won a talent contest in Montego Bay, and formed a duo, Roy and Millie, with Roy Panton.