Writer & Broadcaster

Dr Lucy O’Brien is a writer, academic and broadcaster. Her acclaimed in-depth biography Madonna: Like An Icon (2018), includes 80 interviews with friends, lovers, musicians, dancers and producers, and was translated into 13 languages. She wrote the bestseller Lead Sister: The Story of Karen Carpenter (2023 Times Book of The Year, Penderyn Prize shortlist), which reframed the tragic singer's life and legacy. Similarly, Dusty, her classic biography of 60s pop legend Dusty Springfield was key to understanding her power as a pioneer.

Lucy also wrote She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music, now in its fourth edition. The book inspired 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, and has become a set text.

She has co-authored leading memoirs The Liverbirds: Our Life in Britain’s First Female Rock n’ Roll Band, (2024, 5 star Kirkus review) and It Takes Blood And Guts with rock singer Skin. She also published the in-depth biography Annie Lennox.

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 contributed to many anthologies, including The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock (2025), Ink On The Tracks: Rock and Roll Writing (2024), and Voicing Girlhood in Popular Music: Performance, Authority, Authenticity (2016).

Lucy has worked for the music press since the 1980s, starting on NME and contributing to a range of titles including MOJO, Q, The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Quietus. She's a consultant and guest contributor in television and radio, for example Channel 4 News, BBC Radio 4 - Woman’s Hour, Radio London, and numerous TV music documentaries. She also co-produced Righteous Babes, the 1998 Channel 4 film about rock and new feminism.

She teaches postgrad research and Music Industry Management 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 taught Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London, and University of Westminster. 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.