Peak UK Chart Position: #10 in June 1991.

Happy birthday to Sonia Evans (born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England), who is 46 today. She sprung onto the charts in June 1989 with “You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You”, a Stock Aitken Waterman-produced track, which – after debuting at a lowly number 55, was at the top of the charts four weeks later, and ended up the 16th best seller of the year. She scored five more hits with SAW, and all went top twenty, including “You’ve Got A Friend” with Big Fun in aid of the Childline charity. Post-SAW, there were another five top thirty hits, with 1993 seeing her representing Great Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest – her entry “Better The Devil You Know” (not the Kylie track, as some sources would have you believe) was runner-up in the Ireland-hosted show.

Quick facts:

• “Only Fools (Never Fall In Love)” was Sonia’s first post-SAW release, and was produced by Nigel Wright.
• Co-writer Barry Upton commented that he’d initially written the song with Diana Ross in mind, but Sonia’s A&R man, one Simon Cowell, heard the song and took it for her.
• She was one of the performers on 1989’s Band Aid II version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”
• In 1994, she replaced Debbie Gibson in the role of Sandy in the West End musical “Grease”.

Sonia is still performing, with plenty of live dates lined up this year – including as part of the ‘Ultimate 80s – Hit Factory Live’ this September. Back to 1991 here, and an Anthea Turner-hosted Top of the Pops (her final show) from May 30th 1991 – a show that also included Technotronic, Pop Will Eat Itself, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Kylie Minogue, and Amy Grant.