Sonia

b. 13 February 1971, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Another Stock, Aitken And Waterman (SAW) pop protégée, Sonia had been singing around Liverpool clubs since leaving school and was a well known starlet in Merseyside having appeared as Adrian Boswell’s girlfriend in the hit UK television situation comedy Bread. She also regularly hosted the Stars Of The Future Show at the Liverpool Empire in aid of underprivileged children. In her bid to make it as a singer she cajoled Waterman in to allowing her to sing live on his regular Radio City programme. He was impressed enough to get her on his television show The Hitman And Her and shortly afterwards she recorded her debut single, ‘You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You’. Written and produced by the entire SAW team it was a UK number 1 in June 1989. Follow-up UK chart singles included ‘Can’t Forget You’ (number 17), ‘Listen To Your Heart’ (number 10). The following year she recorded a Top 20 version of James Taylor’s ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ with new SAW heroes Big Fun, and covered the Skeeter Davis hit ‘End Of The World’ (number 18, August 1990). A change of labels resulted in another hit, when ‘Only Fools (Never Fall In Love)’ reached number 10 in June 1991. ‘You To Me Are Everything’ reached number 13 the same November. In 1993, Sonia represented Britain in the Eurovision Song Contest, with ‘Better The Devil You Know’, but was beaten to the number one position by the Irish entry. Released as a single, the song reached UK number 15 in May 1993. She has since concentrated on live theatre work, appearing alongside Shane Richie in the West End revival of Grease, and touring the musical show What A Feeling.