Sonia Evans was born in Liverpool on the 13th of February 1971 and was brought up in Walton. Everyone used to sing in her family and when she was about six, singing around the house her dad realised she had a talent so she started going to drama school once a week. She was only 8 years old when she won a singing competition for up to 16-year-olds which was when she first entered the music business.
Reading that Pete Waterman was coming to the Hippodrome in
Liverpool, he was a bit taken aback when she got up and sang without
being at all intimidated and he invited her to sing live on his Radio
City show.
Afterwards he told her she had a recording
contract with Simon Cowell at BMG and that he would make her a star. Signed to Chrysalis Records her debut single 'You'll
Never Stop Me From Loving You', composed and produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman, was released in June 1989 and shot to No.1 for 2 weeks in the UK selling a staggering 350,000 copies.
The single also topped the Irish chart and reached the Top Ten of the US dance chart. Numerous television
appearances revealed her bubbly personality and natural enthusiasm
endearing her to a large audience. Her certified gold debut album, 'Everybody Knows', was released in April 1990 and peaked at number seven in the UK. It sold
half million copies and included a string of top singles such as 'Can't
Forget You', 'Listen To Your Heart' and 'Counting Every Minute' as she became, at the age of 18, one of the youngest female British singers to achieve the feat of five top 20 hit singles from one album. 'Sonia' achieved a sixth top 20 hit in the UK in 1990 with 'You've Got a
Friend', recorded with the group 'Big Fun' and released as a charity single for 'Childline'.
She left her record label, and S,A,&W, and in 1991 was able to develop her song writing talents when she released the self titled album 'Sonia' produced by Nigel Wright. Further hits followed including 'Only Fools', her 3rd UK top 10 hit, and 'Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy' and a tour of Europe, The Far East and North and South America strengthened her already substantial following.
Sonia also contributed to two charity singles, 'Band Aid's' second release of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' in 1989 and Gulf Aid's 'As Time Stood Still' in 1991. In 1993, she represented the United Kingdom in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, singing the Dean Collinson and Brian Teasdale composition, 'Better the Devil You Know' and was placed second in the contest behind Ireland. Her third album, also titled 'Better the Devil You Know' was released that year and reached number 32 in the UK.
Other releases followed over the following years but Sonia's time as a popular singer seemed to have peaked as none managed to dent the charts. In 1994, she starred as Sandy in a West End revival of the musical Grease alongside Craig McLachlan, whilst on television she appeared as Bunty in the 1998 BBC comedy series The Lily Savage Show.
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