She came to prominence in the early 1980s when she scored a top ten single on the UK Official Charts with "More Than in Love", while she was appearing in the television soap opera Crossroads.

Her father was Mike Robbins, who grew up in Hightown, Wrexham, the son of Ted, who served as the secretary of the Football Association of Wales for more than 35 years.

In 1960, McCartney and John Lennon performed as "The Nerk Twins" at the Fox and Hounds pub in Caversham, Reading, which was run by Bett and her husband Mike.

Robbins' first chart appearance was as a backing singer, along with her sister Jane, on the minor Top 40 hit "Lines" by Liverpool group Planets,[6] a spin-off from Deaf School.

Her profile was raised soon afterwards when both she and Jane represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 as part of the group Prima Donna.

Robbins also provided the English language dubbing for Europeans, featured on the Channel 4 series Eurotrash and, in 2006, made two appearances on the BBC Radio 4 programme Just a Minute.

In December 2010, Robbins released her third album, a jazz based affair, entitled Soho Nights, which was written as a collaboration with the Italian saxophonist Alessandro Tomei, and recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London.

The following year she appeared with James Franco and Jean Reno in the film Flyboys, playing the role of Clarisse, a brothel Madame.

Alongside daughter Emily Atack, Robbins appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox and is a regular contributor on Steph's Packed Lunch for Channel 4.