Who the Hell is Sonia?

One of the hallmarks of Scousers (people from Liverpool, or Liverpudlians) is a sense of pride in ‘our’ own. Liverpool has been a part of some tragic moments in history (the Titanic, the Slave Trade, Jemini…), and it is likely that its musical heritage contributed to Liverpool being awarded the hosting gig.

 

According to completely unsubstantiated rumours, 1993 was 30 years ago. I was a young boy in the other room at my Nan’s house watching the penultimate one-artist UK National Final. Normally TV wasn’t allowed on a Sunday – not even for Songs of Praise – but Eurovision was an exception – especially when it was all about a local hero.

 

Back in those days, UK were pretty damn successful at Eurovision. The 30 years since – not so much. But who cares about them – today we have a simple question – Who the Hell is Sonia?

 

A very relevant question, because she will be popping up in the grand final next Saturday. Eurovision has come a long way since 1993, or even since 2013 – and there will be a lot of younger fans watching who have no idea of the answer.

 

 

Sonia Evans (which sounds more like an Eastenders character than a singer) was born in 1971. 

 

Famous UK songwriting and production trio Stock Aitken Waterman added her to their roster of acts they achieved success with (like Kylie, Dead or Alive, Rick Astley and more).

Her debut single "You'll Never Stop Me Loving You" reached No. 1 on the UK charts 

 

SAW’s also have some dubious links to Eurovision – one of their earliest credits being production on "Anna Maria Lena" in 1984, and they would later contribute “That Sounds Good to Me” to UK’s Eurovision dark days, but the less on that the better.

 

Sonia’s initial success and ‘winsome’ personality (as John Kennedy O’Connor would probably describe it) brought with it further success musically – becoming the first British woman to score 5 top 20 hits from the same album. 

 

She left SAW after her first album – possibly because she heard Anna Maria Lena – but her follow up album with producer Nigel Wright.

 

And I can tell you now that writing this article is probably more educational for me than the reader – as I just found out that Nigel Wright conducted the orchestra for the Iceland’s "Nei eða já" in 1992 – the year before our Sonia took him for her own entry – and also conducted the orchestra on ALW’s Eurovision: Your Country Needs You.

 

 

This brings us nicely to Sonia’s Eurovision attempt. The BBC asked her to prepare 8 different songs, which were then revealed over 4 shows. Every song was then performed in a final on April 9, 1993, and televoting chose the winner. The winning song, "Better The Devil You Know" got more than twice the number of televotes to the runner up.

 

The last place song, “It’s Just a Matter of Time” was co-written by Gary Benson, who has form at failing in UK pre-selections (last in 1974, 4^th in 1975, 5^th in 1977, 4^th in 1981, last in preliminary heat in 1998).

 

The winning song charted only at #15 in the UK, and the album (featuring the top 4 ASFE entries) peaked at #32.

 

 

At Eurovision, Sonia had more luck. She received points from 22/24 competing nations – with only Greece and Malta not giving any points. Austria, Belgium, Iceland and Israel awarded the douze.

 

However it was Niamh Kavanagh who beat her by 17 points with “In Your Eyes”, giving Ireland their second victory in a row and moving them to joint-top of the winners’ leaderboard with France and Luxembourg.

 

 

Sonia never recaptured her fame, despite countless single releases, and reality TV shows like Reborn In The USA (also featuring a similarly ginger and Eurofamous Gina G and a still-to-be 2008 NF hopeful Michelle Gayle – remember her?) and Celebrity 5 Go Caravanning.

 

She married in 1998 and had a daughter Gracie in 2010, but really her main role has been popping up every few years to remind people that she lost Eurovision by 1 point (she didn’t).

 

As Liverpool prepare to host Eurovision 2023, you can spot Sonia in a lot of places. She’s in Hello Magazine,  Hollyoaks, delivering a cheese and wine package to a competition winner, and of course as part of the ‘Liverpool Songbook’ interval at Eurovision.

And on May 12^th, you can find her around the city to win tickets to the Grand Final.

https://www.visitliverpool.com/eurovision-2023/spot-sonia-competition/

 

 

 

Auto Finalist Reharsals - a roundup

Alright mate!

After a bit of a break for semi finalists' second rehearsals - and for me to travel over half of this year's participants by plane - we are back with the first rehearsals for those lucky 6 pre-qualified countries.

Click to watch the TikTok, or as an MBer is worth a 1000 words, read their comments below instead.

1. France 🇫🇷

- It's like they saw Moldova 2013 and thought... MORE.

- This looks potentially glorious! But yikes at the wobbly platform!

- If Barbara Pravi was the Louvre, this is EuroDisney

2. Germany 🇩🇪

Well. Glad we only going to see this once

Watching without the sound this was quite headache inducing

I find it hard to predict this one - it looks and sounds as you'd expect and will have an audience

3. Spain 🇪🇸

- Awesome! First winner vibes after Finland. Love the blinding hand thingie

- We can check her Benidrom performance to see all of the rehearsal

- I like this. But it will bomb on its arse, I'm afraid

4. Italy 🇮🇹

- A ‘no staging’ staging might actually be the smartest choice considering the stagings we’ve seen

- Can't stand the voice, the pants and shirt don't work together...but it's competent 

- He's so pretty. Love his voice. And this doesn't need a big staging

5. Ukraine 🇺🇦

- Looks and sounds very competent. Lower top 10, I'd say

- The oufits are hideous, everything else seems pretty good

- Ukraine just knows how to do Eurovision, this is very good

6. UK 🇬🇧

- This is excellent. They've done a much better job than I was expecting. With good vocals this is top 10

- Sounds like they pre-recorded some extra backings, which I think works well

- That's just a small part. Cute graphics. Didn't we see the hands thing before?

So there we have it. Stand by for some extra content to tide you over the weekend, before I head to Liverpool on Monday to be your live correspondent, and our wider (rude) team brings you coverage of the full rehearsals next week, as well as hopefully our predictions and the usual fun!

Third Day of Reharsals - a roundup

 Alright love,

Today is the day (or should that say Yesterday?) [NO BEATLES REFS, PLEASE] when the remaining semi finalists take on their first rehearsal.

You can click the country name to view the TikTok, but why not be lazy and let me select a few of my favourite descriptions from people on our message board who (presumably) watched the TikTok so we don't have to.

1. Estonia 🇪🇪

- Lights! Arms! Hair! 
- Is It True from Wish
- She seems fun, unlike her song 

2. Iceland 🇮🇸

- This is giving me upgraded Svala vibes
- Kinda wish they would have done something else than to just put her alone on an empty stage. 
- Ay ay ay. That jacket... 

3. Greece 🇬🇷

- He got his mother’s voice (Dilja) and his father’s fashion sense (Theodor Andrei)
- He's so mature. Looks and sounds great, seems an easy Q
- Very nice and this changes as I had this as a NQ... changed my mind

4. Poland 🇵🇱

- This is my guilty pleasure and I'll probably secretly root for this - but that dance break makes zero sense
- Oh she has an Eleni moment
- Oh honey... you ain't no Chanel 

5. Slovenia 🇸🇮

- Love how they didn’t tell the drummer the music’s prerecorded
- Bojan's so likeable. Doesn't seem like there's much going on but great energy
- Incredibly charismatic bunch of people. My guess is that they’re gonna do really well based on that alone.

6. Georgia 🇬🇪

- With those visuals and that voice you'd almost forget it lacks a proper song
- I LOLed at her flawless English, that was unexpected
- Basically like in the video. Hope the gibberish parts look good on screen as they are the best bits. 

7. San Marino 🇸🇲

- Not sure about the red/black/lips choice here. I'd have gone quirky and colourful to make it more tongue in cheek
- It feels like there's a lot of lying on the floor this year
- Clearly they had the graphics already made for Ice Eye before they unexpectedly got knocked out in the semi 

8. Austria 🇦🇹

- Love the "urgh" on the screen (is it reacting to San Marino?)
- Edgar makes it onto the screen at the end
- I'm a little surprised they haven't got the opera parts on the backing track. Would be an easy way to make it sound full

9. Albania 🇦🇱

- Greece's 10 should be a nice comfort for the ride home
- Staging is a bit boring, but they are so gonna slay this
- They look much more comfortable than in FiK. I like it.

10. Lithuania 🇱🇹

- Should be enough for final
- Some purple to break up all the red and orange \o/

[This is the least commented on rehearsal so far, so have a picture]

11. Australia 🇦🇺

- Hairography!
- If My Calculations Are Correct, When This Baby Hits 88 Miles Per Hour, You're Gonna See Some Serious S***
- RUDE! [R] - VanessaAmorosi - 20:52:54 

Now everybody has rehearsed once, nobody is any the wiser.

Will Finland or Sweden win? (that depends which one you like more)

Will Latvia or Ireland come last? (that depends if you're Ron or YSB)

Will anybody get 10/10 qualifiers in Semi 2? (unlikely but we know What They Say)

Second Day of Rehearsals - a roundup

Hiya chuck,

Another day of trying to glean something significant from very little. What we can all agree on is that we're going to see some great shows on stage this year. And the Netherlands.

What did the MBers make of it all on the second day of first rehearsals? Scroll to find out.

As before, click the country link to see the TikTok footage.

1. Israel 🇮🇱

- Wow! That’s a contender and she’s a hell of a performer.
- Looks very effective - and may I repeat she is so stunning
- Performance is the best bits of Fuego and SloMo combined; the difference is that this is far from effortless

2. Azerbaijan 🇦🇿

- So weird to see something like this, so simple and classy, from AZ
- Hmmm, i don´t find it particularly good tbh, even if i like the song. It´s a bit boring and worse sung that the studio
- Completely hopeless, I love it

3. Czechia (are we gonna do it? OK then) 🇨🇿

- Difficult to judge by so little but there seem to be goosebumpworthy moments there... and the vocals the little we hear seem okay
- That's a very cohesive look, I'll give them that
- If all goes right for them, I wonder whether this has the potential to be this year's Proud with the juries. And, like Proud, probably facing off at the top of the jury votes with Sweden.

4. Netherlands 🇳🇱

- I think this will look great, if anything
- The higher key will take some getting used to, but otherwise this seems fine. 
- It does like they've spread a single jacket over the two of them

5. Finland 🇫🇮

- I pity whoever comes after then in the final because they will be forgotten
- Love the backing singers' synchronised swimmer faces
- They've 'out-Loreened' Sweden here - this has way more impact

6. Denmark 🇩🇰

- Looks like he stole a bit if Ireland's suit, and a couple of their stairs
- It already looks million times better than in the NF
- His impression from the rehearsal seems to be 'not bad' and that's the sense I get, too.

7. Armenia 🇦🇲

- I'm guessing this will look amazing on screen. (It will sound good, feel good, look good)
- This feels underwhelming
- This looks and sounds great, seems an obv top 3 in the semi, or even first 

8. Romania 🇷🇴

- Pikachu is the mildest thing there:-D
- "Your delegation was so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should"
- ...and with this he probably scared away the last people on earth that still believed this can qualify

9. Belgium 🇧🇪

- He looks like a marshmallow:)
- Tbf this is his best look yet
- He does look like the 90's one hit wonder who's getting a chance to perform now that gen Z is having 90's revival

10. Cyprus 🇨🇾

- He actually sounds good - AND he's doing the high notes live!
- 'Let's throw all rain and fire in' situation. He looks good! 
- He sounds good! The visuals are ok but basic, I guess they could work with great camera angles

And that's it for Day 2.

I'll leave you with this thought:

First Day of Rehearsals - a roundup

 Hiya and happy most wonderful time of the year!

As you probably know, there is a change to the procedure, and - wisely some might say - we humble Eurovision fans will only get access to rehearsals from May 8th. Coincidentally, this is the day I arrive back in my hometown to lead ESC Nation's live coverage. As in 2010 (was it really that long ago?) my focus will be on doing things a little 'differently' and trying to bring the vibes, feelings and atmosphere of Eurovision 2023 through the screen and into your lives.

For now, the best place to access the appetite-whetting info from early rehearsals is the official site and TikTok Eurovision channel. As always, you are invited to join the conversation on our message board.

In that spirit, let's take a quick look at Day 1 - click the link to watch the TikTok footage, or just read about it in ESC Nationer's words:

1. Norway 🇳🇴

- She went with her NF outift instead of the video outfit 

- It looks like the NF performance

- They do have glo sticks… outdoing them will be impossible

2. Malta 🇲🇹

- A huge colour and stage contrast with Norway
- Very colourful 'but' it could come across as rather Junior Eurovision
- They’re celebrating with past Maltese entrants, Destiny, Chiara and others are there (in cardboard cut-out form)

3. Serbia 🇷🇸

- Looks pretty much the same as in the NF, which is no bad thing
- It seems they change the “crab walk” choreo, the rest feels the same
- Why is he wearing a shirt like the Amish people do

4. Latvia 🇱🇻

- Maybe best we’ve seen today? [Ed: This was 4th on] The stage looks great! 
- But their outfits don‘t! 
- Good to see Ann Sophie's backing lights still find some use 8 years later

5. Portugal 🇵🇹

- The sofa is gone!
- She seems lovely and the lighting looks good
- She's painting the town red, Denmark 89-style

6. Ireland 🇮🇪

- Wtf has he got on?
- As expected. The progression from the steps to the satellite breaks down the repetitiveness a bit.
- He looks like he should be singing Telegram in a Silver Convention tribute band.

7. Croatia 🇭🇷

- All the chaos I wanted from them... and a Croatian Costume Change! 
- Grandpas going around with their underwear
- It's everything I wanted, and a little bit more 

8. Switzerland 🇨🇭

- Hm, curious to see how this looks on screen. I was a bit sceptical, but it could work well
- A bit too gimmicky for a ballad? Always a risk to add in a load of choreography to a slow song
- What a hideous outfit.

9. Moldova 🇲🇩

- Lots of kitchen sinks here
- Their outfits are epic and so Eurovison friendly. I think they are doing a Dotter moment with the flute player which I think it's very clever. Moldova will sail through
- The Moldovan method strikes again: They bring someone cute as a support to the main act 

10. Sweden 🇸🇪

- The camerawork will probably be topnotch and it'll look supercool on TV but probably not as fun in the hall
- Wasn't there talk of some new elements to the staging? This one looks identical 
- The prop has slightly different dimensions to the one from MF. No final for Sweden.