Pop career
It was in 1989, after an impromptu audition with
Pete Waterman, that Sonia signed her first record deal. At the age of 18
her debut single You’ll
Never Stop Me Loving You hit the charts where it climbed quickly
to number one, selling 350,000 copies and making Sonia the youngest Briton
to have a number one since 1968 (Those Were The Days by Mary Hopkin).
The success of this record was followed by a string of hits, an album,
Everybody Knows, entered
the charts at number 8 (selling 500,000 copies) and Sonia promptly becoming
a household name. However a legal dispute arose and Sonia departed from
PWL to IQ Records.
A new deal signified big change. Sonia’s image and
sound was no longer controlled. She began co-writing her own material,
gone was the perm and her trade mark pig-tail. Her image became trendier,
sexier and more womanly, but never pretentious. The title of her second
album Sonia boasted this
new self-control. The songs were a departure from her previous PWL tracks,
songs like Be My Baby
have a more jazzy flavour. Another string of hits followed and Sonia promoted
them by touring Europe, America and Asia.
Despite not winning the Eurovision Song Contest
in 1993, Better
The Devil You Know, Sonia’s first release on the Arista label,
entered the UK charts at number 9, closely followed by an album
of the same name which entered the charts at number 20. The album also
included three other of the highest scoring songs which she performed in
the Song For Europe Contest, four cover versions, four songs which she
co-wrote and Set Me On Fire,
a song written for her by Lisa Stansfield who also features on backing
vocals. This album however was not as successful as Arista had hoped, selling
25,000 copies in Europe, and Sonia was dropped from the label.
In 1994 Sonia released the single Hopelessly
Devoted To You on Cockney Records. This song had previously been
a hit for Olivia Newton-John who has also represented the UK in the Eurovision
Song Contest. This release was well received by the media, receiving complementary
reviews from a variety of magazines including Music Week and Live &
Kicking. This single also contained The
Anthem Medley, a medley of three favourite cover versions: I
Am What I Am, You Make Me Feel Mighty Real and Don’t Leave
Me This Way. This single was released to promote her role as Sandy
in the musical Grease in the Dominion Theatre in London’s West End.
In November 1995 Sonia released Wake
Up Everybody on Carlton Sounds. This three-song CD had a more mature
and laid back sound, created by Steve Levine of Manmade Soul. One reviewer
said "this was originally a hit for Harold Melvin and The Bluenotes in
1975 and Sonia does the business with it!!". This release also contained
two other new tracks; a cover of the 70’s hit Show
You The Way To Go, (previously covered by Dannii Minogue) and Nowhere
Left To Hide, a brand new track co-written by Sonia, Steve Levine,
and Darius Zickus, who have since worked with ex-Eternal singer Louise
on her second album Woman In Me.
Aside from Sonia’s three studio albums her rich
vocals can also be heard on Do They Know Its Christmas by Band Aid II,
formerly the biggest selling single in the world. She also released a charity
single with Big Fun called You’ve Got A Friend. The proceeds of this single
were donated to Childline. A song called We’ve Got The Power was also recorded,
for the Gladiators TV programme.
Sonia recently starred in What A Feeling!,
a show which features songs from the most popular musicals. On the
cast album she sings on eight of the fifteen live tracks. This album
is a fantastic vehicle for Sonia’s voice. The tracks allow her to demonstrate
her phenomenal vocal range, much more so than any of her previous studio
albums. She soars through LIVE challenging selections such as Chaka Kahn’s
I’m Every Woman and Whitney Houston’s Run To You as well
as Irene Cara’s Fame and What A Feeling with a tip of the
hat to Andrew Lloyd Webber in I Don’t Know How To Love Him from
Jesus Christ Superstar. The audience’s thunderous appreciation is heard
at the end of each outstanding performance.
To television appearances
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