Sonia

Born on 13 February 1971 in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, Sonia emerged as another protégé of the Stock, Aitken and Waterman production team. After finishing school she performed regularly in Liverpool clubs and had already become a familiar face on Merseyside through her role as Adrian Boswell’s girlfriend in the popular UK sitcom Bread. She further established herself locally by hosting the Stars Of The Future Show at the Liverpool Empire to benefit underprivileged children. Determined to launch a recording career, she persuaded Waterman to let her perform live on his Radio City radio programme. Her appearance so impressed him that he booked her for his television show The Hitman And Her, after which she cut her debut single, ‘You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You’. The track, written and produced by the full SAW team, topped the UK chart in June 1989. Subsequent singles included ‘Can’t Forget You’, which reached number 17, and ‘Listen To Your Heart’, which climbed to number 10. In 1990 she joined new SAW act Big Fun for a Top 20 cover of James Taylor’s ‘You’ve Got A Friend’ and also recorded a version of Skeeter Davis’s ‘End Of The World’ that peaked at number 18 in August. A label switch brought further success when ‘Only Fools (Never Fall In Love)’ hit number 10 in June 1991, followed that November by ‘You To Me Are Everything’ at number 13. Representing Britain at the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest with ‘Better The Devil You Know’, she finished behind the Irish entry, yet the song still reached number 15 on the UK chart in May. Since then Sonia has focused on stage work, appearing with Shane Richie in the West End revival of Grease and touring in the musical production What A Feeling.