Hello from Dillie Keane

Photographer Michael Shelford

“Her worldview is laconic, her lyrics lacerating, her voice now capable of going deeper than a Chilean miner.”

THE TELEGRAPH

“Keane, whose piano-playing remains as sprightly and inventive as ever, prompts gales of laughter with merely the raising of a quizzical eyebrow.”

THE TIMES

“Exudes faded glamour, a bit like Brighton sea front”

DAILY MAIL

All About Me

Visitors to this website over the years have been marvelling at Dillie’s youthful and unchanging appearance. Not a single new wrinkle has appeared in, ooh, a decade or more. This, however, is not due to surgery, monkey glands or even nightly application of La Mer, it is entirely due to the fact that she hasn’t updated the website since websites were called Ye Olde Webbsyte and Tim Berners Lee was in short pants. One of her many talents is a gift for procrastination and so it is with a heavy heart that she now welcomes you to the Awful Reality that is her aging face.

Just to remind you, she is a singer, songwriter, cabaret artiste and actress, and is best known as one third of the international satirical cabaret trio that is Fascinating Aïda. She is, in fact, the founding member. For many years, she lived an enjoyably split existence: sometimes a denizen of motorway stops, dark dressing rooms and glittering theatres, and at other times a contented partner and countrywoman making chutney and beavering away in her large Oxfordshire garden. Sadly, that part of her life ended when her beloved partner of 23 years, John O’Neill, died of a stroke. She has since moved her grieving heart to London; back in her old haunts, she is rebuilding her life over again. Last year, she resumed her old career of actress for a season at the acclaimed Menier Chocolate Factory in Borough, London, playing Lady MacPhail in The Cabinet Minister by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero and Nancy Carrol.

Scroll on to see what she’s up to now.

Fascinating Aïda, however, is her grand creation. The achievement can be told in numbers.

30 million YouTube hits to date
14 million hits (and growing) for Cheap Flights
42 years since formation
41 years with Adele Anderson
21 years with Liza Pulman
11 countries
9 Albums
8 Sopranos that you know of (and at least 5 you don’t)
7 nervous breakdowns
5 languages into which their songs have been translated
5 Continents
5 DVDs
3 Videos (now lost or available in fuzzy chunks on YouTube)
3 Olivier Nominations
3 Drama Desk (NYC) nominations
2 London cabaret awards
1 Perrier nomination
1 City Limits award

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SOLO CABARETS & TWO TURTLE DOVES…

Autumn 2025 is going to be devoted to a gentle tour with Fascinating Aïda as they wring the last juice from their fabulous 40th Anniversary show. Scroll down for those dates.

But for those of you interested in her other work, she’s doing some solo cabarets at the gorgeous Piccadilly venue, Crazy Coqs, with a mixture of old and brand new material. Michael Roulston on keys, what could be better?

And at Christmas she is reunited once more with her great pal, the renowned singer Barb Jungr, as they bring their much-loved Christmas show to yet more venues. This year, the marvellous Michael is joining them on the keys. So if you want to get yourself in the Yuletide mood, this is the show for you.

It’s stuffed like a turkey with festive cheer and improbable songs that we guarantee you will never have heard before. So forget the cheesy stuff you hear piped in the supermarket, the lift, the shops, the adverts, this is a fabulous collection of songs that will make you fall in love with Christmas all over again.

Scroll down for venues! We may well be coming to a theatre near you!

Solo cabarets

Thursday 29th January 7pm | Wilton’s Music Hall, London | Book Now
Friday 30th January 7pm | Wilton’s Music Hall, London | Book Now

Two Turtle Doves

“Keane gives a bravura performance.”

David Finkle for Huffington Post

“Keane is a brilliant performer who takes no prisoners. Seeing her is like having a Vitamin B shot. You will leave the theatre feeling like a Roman Candle.”

Tulis McCall for Front row centre – New York

“A less-is-more talent, she only needs to raise an eyebrow, add a lilt or even a growl to her voice to supply comic gold.”

Fern Siegel for Huffington Post

If you’ve got this far, you might as well read this.

It’s been a funny old time. Funny in the sense that at best elicits a rueful smile and damp eyes rather than anything that might make one laugh. John O’Neill, bon viveur, racegoer, vermin controller, ex-City Super-Honcho, and the love of my life, died on 13 August 2022 and life suddenly became unutterably sad and difficult. Mostly, friends and family have been wonderful and only a very small handful of people have been extremely disappointing. And then my darling dog Piper died last year. And now I am finally leaving my glorious garden, entirely created from scratch by me with John’s help and blessing and joyous appreciation. It feels like losing John all over again. But sad as I am, there are MUCH worse things going on in the world and you can’t go through life expecting it to be roses all the way. Life will jump up and bite you no matter how much you try to insulate yourself from sorrow.

So I’m building a new life now in London. I miss the village and the wonderful friends I made there over the years, and I realise now that I put down far deeper roots there than I ever imagined I could. But I’ve made new friends here as well as been surrounded by the kindness and support of old pals. No longer do I hear the hounds singing or the clip-clop of horses going past the front gate, I listen instead to the trains clattering past my house and it has a delicious romance of its own. I walk to the shops instead of driving into town. I have two small patios and am filling them with my favourite roses and with those roses come memories of the place I first planted them. I will mourn John for the rest of my life, but my life is ok. I have a new hip, I’ve been travelling, I’ve been in a play, and above all I’ve got songs and friends.

Thank you for reading this far. Stay safe, and do take time to appreciate what you have while you have it. I’m so pleased I so often made John come out with me and admire a single snowdrop, or a new rosebud, or a dahlia beginning to flower. Those memories are food for the soul.