On her 2009 album "The Performance", Shirley Bassey sings the semi autobiographical "The Girl From Tiger Bay" which was written by Manic Street Preachers and James Bond composer David Arnold. A number of artists wrote songs expressly for Bassey, including Manic Street Preachers, Gary Barlow, KT Tunstall, Pet Shop Boys, Nick Hodgson of the Kaiser Chiefs, John Barry and Don Black. "The Performance" is an album by singer Shirley Bassey, released on 9 November 2009. It is her first studio album of original compositions in three decades. English film composer David Arnold co-produced the entire album with Mike Dixon. Bassey headlined at the BBC Electric Proms on 23 October 2009, in her only full live set of 2009 Wales. The recording of the album became the subject of a BBC documentary titled The Girl from Tiger Bay named after the song written by James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers for the project. Of the songs, Bassey commented that they were very different from anything she had recorded before, with songs such as "After the Rain" being in a much lower key than she would normally use, while the Arnold composition "As God is My Witness" was almost scrapped due to a disagreement about the arrangement. Gary Barlow said that he had a struggle to complete his song, "This Time", and as Bassey found it lyrically too long, some sections were abandoned. Of the Pet Shop Boys composition, "The Performance of My Life", Bassey remarked that the lyrics hit close to home and moved her to tears during recording. Songwriter Neil Tennant said that it was about a diva, who lived her life on stage, but was not specifically about Bassey. At the end of recording, Bassey said that the experience was both "frustrating, but exhilarating". Of the finished album, she has said to be "ecstatic". Dame Shirley Veronica Bassey,"one of the most popular female vocalists in Britain during the last half of the 20th century" was born on January 8, 1937, in Cardiff, Wales. A singer since childhood, Bassey's bold voice, along with her perseverance, helped her move beyond her impoverished upbringing. Of mixed-race heritage (with an English mother and a Nigerian father), Bassey reached a level of international acclaim that few other black British performers had seen before her. A world-famous singer with a big voice and a glamorous reputation, Shirley Bassey has recorded numerous hits, including three James Bond theme songs: Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and Moonraker (1979). Shirley Veronica Bassey was the sixth and last child of Eliza Jane Start and Henry Bassey in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales (now called Cardiff Bay). Tiger Bay (Welsh: Bae Teigr) was the local name for an area of Cardiff which covered Butetown and Cardiff Docks. It was re-branded as Cardiff Bay following the building of the Cardiff Barrage which dams the tidal rivers Ely and Taff to create a body of water. The development of the Cardiff Docks played a major part in Cardiff's development by being the means of exporting coal from the South Wales Valleys to the rest of the world, helping to power the industrial age. The coal mining industry helped fund the growth of Cardiff to become the capital city of Wales and contributed towards making the docks owner, John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, the richest man in the world at the time. In 1999, new life was injected into the area by the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation, which bulldozed many of the now derelict and decrepit buildings and streets to create new living spaces. This redevelopment was completed by the building of the Cardiff Bay Barrage, one of the most controversial building projects of the day but also one of the most successful, that impounds the Rivers Taff and the Ely to create a massive fresh-water lake. This resulted in the equally controversial renaming of the area to "Cardiff Bay". Tiger Bay's most famous native residents have been singer Shirley Bassey, and rug...