In the pink, sparkly coffin she picked out herself, pop legend Linda Nolan will take her final curtain call today - as only she knew how. Heartbroken fans are expected to line the streets in the singer’s hometown of Blackpool, where she will be laid to rest, to give “the blingiest Nolan”, who fought a long and determined battle with cancer, one last standing ovation. Her devastated brothers and sisters, “her cavalry” as she christened them, will be by her side to the very end.

The sixth of eight siblings, Linda died on January 15, just a month shy of her 66th birthday, after developing double pneumonia. In spring 2023, the Daily Mirror columnist announced secondary breast cancer had spread to her brain and had since been documenting living with the incurable disease each week, with both moving honesty and her trademark humour. Following her death in hospital, Blackpool lit up its iconic tower in pink to honour the Irish-born star who moved to the town as a child and was first diagnosed with breast cancer 20 years ago.

The service to commemorate her life will be held at St Paul's Church at 10.30 am, followed by an intimate committal at a nearby crematorium. Celebrity friends expected to attend include lifelong pals and fellow showbiz veterans Paul Chuckle and Tommy Cannon, alongside younger friends the sociable singer made in later years, including Kerry Katona and Lisa Maffia. Poignantly, the pretty church is where she married the love of her life, Brian Hudson, in 1981. A photograph of the pair on their big day, smiling cheeks pressed together, beams with joy from the Order of Service.

It is also the church where Linda said her last goodbye to Brian at his own funeral, following his death aged 60 from liver failure in 2007. “St Paul’s Church holds a deeply special place in Linda’s heart,” explained her manager and longtime friend Dermot McNamara. “Now, Linda will return to this sacred place to be reunited with Brian once more, finally at peace and back in his loving embrace.”.

Apart from the ‘blingy’ coffin she picked with her true indomitable spirit when she first received the frightening news tumours had spread to her brain, Linda struggled to plan the details of her own funeral. She admitted she admired her beloved younger sister Bernie, who died in 2013, aged just 52, after her own tragic breast cancer diagnosis, for having planned her send-off. But said she found it hard to do the same, focusing instead on living the best life she could day by day.

Yet there was one piece of music which, years ago, she and Brian chose for what then seemed the distant prospect of their funerals: There You’ll Be by Faith Hill. And so, following in Brian’s footsteps, the powerful ballad will sound out again at St Pauls as Linda’s pink coffin enters the church through the doorway his once did. Psalm 23, The Lord Is My Shepherd, will then form the reading before Linda’s older sister Denise, who she lived with during her final years, gives the eulogy.

Music from Linda’s good friend Donny Osmond was never going to be far from her final act. The American singer was her schoolgirl crush, his posters decorating her and Bernie’s bedroom wall. His track Twelfth Of Never will lift the congregation, a song chosen because Linda sang it from the audience with her idol in 2017 when he performed on tour in Liverpool. The pair first met in the 1970s, after Linda got her big break with her sisters.

And Linda’s own voice will of course take a star turn. By her own admission, she never shied from being centre stage. God Knows, a track from The Nolans’ 1982 album, Portrait, which she performed solo the following year during a BBC TV special, will feature in the service. Online video of that moving performance captures the beautiful star in her prime, her huge blue eyes as sparkly as her dress under sky blue eyeshadow. The lyrics ‘I’ll never leave you’ could have been sung especially for her family, friends, and fans now mourning her loss.

Another track, When It’s Over, which Linda repeatedly belted out during her decade-long stint until 1993 as Maggie May on Blackpool’s Central Pier, in a basque and huge blonde curls, will also lift the rafters. Poignant poems will be read by her great nephew Vinny Palmer, her elder sister Anne’s grandson, and by her own granddaughter, Lucy Houliston. While Linda and Brian never had children together, a decision she said was her “one regret”, Brian had two from previous relationships who she adored, and who adored her in return.

A sermon will be given by the Reverend Lesley Atkins, and the congregation will sing the hymn I Watch The Sunrise. Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone by Frank Sinatra - who The Nolans once supported on tour - will also be played. Linda will be laid to rest with Brian’s ashes, which she kept at her home in Blackpool. The star sold 30 million records during her long career, including hits Spirit, Body and Soul, Attention To Me and the iconic disco banger I’m In The Mood For Dancing.