1954 in British music

Events

14 January – The Boy Friend, opens in the West End, with understudy Anne Rogers in the lead role after Diana Maddox falls ill at the dress rehearsal.^[1]
5 August – Salad Days opens in the West End after a short run in Bristol.^[2] It becomes the longest-running musical in British theatre history until overtaken by Oliver! in 1960.
14 September – Benjamin Britten conducts the premiere of his opera The Turn of the Screw at Teatro La Fenice, Venice.^[3]
18 September – The Last Night of the Proms for the first time features the subsequently almost-invariable second-half coupling of Sir Henry Wood's 1905 Fantasia on British Sea Songs, Sir Edward Elgar's 1902 setting of "Land of Hope and Glory", Sir Hubert Parry's 1916 setting of William Blake's "Jerusalem", and "Rule, Britannia!".^[4]
1 October – The UK Singles Chart is expanded into a Top 20.
3 December – William Walton's opera Troilus and Cressida opens at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It is not a success.^[3]

23 January – Edward Ka-Spel, singer-songwriter
8 March – Cheryl Baker, singer (Bucks Fizz)
15 March – Isobel Buchanan, operatic soprano
30 April – Christopher Wright, composer (died 2024)
8 May
- John Michael Talbot, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Mason Proffit)
- Gary Wilmot, entertainer
11 May – Judith Weir, composer
10 July – Neil Tennant, singer-songwriter and record producer (Pet Shop Boys)
11 August – Joe Jackson, singer, songwriter and composer
25 August – Elvis Costello, singer-songwriter
3 November – Adam Ant, singer
4 November – Chris Difford, singer, songwriter and record producer (Squeeze)
18 November – John Parr, singer
7 December – Mike Nolan, singer (Bucks Fizz)
10 December – Jack Hues, singer-songwriter and guitarist (Wang Chung)
25 December – Annie Lennox, singer
date unknown – Timothy Bowers, composer

Deaths

Events