Sonia Evans, better known as just Sonia, is a pop singer from Skelmersdale, West Lancashire. She was popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Her singing career was launched in 1989 by the songwriting and music producing trio Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman known as Stock Aitken Waterman. She was signed after badgering Pete Waterman to listen to her sing outside the recording studio in Liverpool. Waterman did a regular weekly radio broadcast. He called her bluff and had her sing live on his show, and she later had several hits in the UK Singles Chart over the following years, including the UK number one single "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" and a hit "You've Got a Friend" (credited to Big Fun & Sonia featuring Gary Barnacle), plus some other Top 20 hit singles, including "Can't Forget You" and "You To Me Are Everything".
She sang on two charity singles, Band Aid II's "Do They Know It's Christmas" in 1989 (peaked at #1 in the UK) and Gulf Aid's "As Time Stood Still" in 1991. She also sang the Dean Collinson and Red composition "Better the Devil You Know" for the United Kingdom in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished in second place.
In 2003, Evans took part in the reality television show Reborn in the USA alongside Elkie Brooks and Tony Hadley, but was voted off in its fifth week.
In January 2007 she starred in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk, as Jack in Horsham, West Sussex, alongside Mark Curry. Late 2007 saw her greatest hits album released only featuring recordings from Sonia's time with BMG Music (1991-1993).
She will appear in panto again in December 2008. She will take the part of the "Good Fairy" in Sleeping Beauty at Rhyl Pavilion Theatre, North Wales from December 12 2008 to 10 January 2009.
Sonia has also acted during her career, having been an extra in Brookside and in the television comedy Bread as the girlfriend of the youngest Boswell child, Billy. This was before her singing career took off and she is credited as Sonia Evans. She has also played alongside Lily Savage as her wayward daughter Bunty Savage, both on the BBC series The Lily Savage show and live show.
