Liverpool is gearing up to host the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in the city's history - but 2023 also marks 30 years since one of our own took to the stage to represent us in the competition.
Singer-songwriter Sonia Evans – known by her first name Sonia - is well-known for her chart topping hits and success on stage. A known talent from a young age, in 1989, the then 18-year-old Liverpool singer hit the charts with her debut single - You'll Never Stop Me Loving You - which climbed up the UK charts to reach the number one spot.
Her debut album Everybody Knows sold 500,000 copies in 1990 and she became the first female UK artist to achieve five top 20 hit singles from one album. From there, Sonia established herself as a star of the stage - but many will also remember the moment she represented the UK in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest.
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Hosted in Millstreet, Ireland, the BBC personally requested Sonia enter the contest as the United Kingdom's representative that year. Wowing audiences across Europe with Better the Devil You Know, Sonia was pipped to the title by Ireland, finishing second with 164 points.
But now three decades on, Sonia still looks back fondly at her time in the competition and remaining part of the much-loved 'Eurovision bubble.' Sonia told the ECHO: "I always watched Eurovision, from knee high to a grasshopper.
"Every year we’d be there with the score charts, me and my sisters and my mum and dad. I especially remember Bucks Fizz when I was 10 with Making Your Mind Up and I was just elated running up and down the stairs singing the song.
"It's so funny now because Cheryl [Baker] is a really really good friend of mine and we do concerts together and when she sings that song it just brings me back to being a ten-year-old again." Sonia said she was "blown away" when the BBC came knocking in 1993 and that despite initial worries, she wanted to take the opportunity to give it 100%.
Sonia said: "It’s amazing, being in the whole Eurovision bubble. It was three months for me, from finding out I was doing it, to doing it and of course, it’s all the publicity, finding the song.
"I was really privileged because I had eight weeks of just me and Terry Wogan every Saturday night finding the song. There were 12 songs we could pick from and the actual public picked the song Better The Devil You Know.
"It’s a long process but you've just got to keep thinking of the finishing line and that’s all I did. Going to Ireland for ten days to do all those camera runs and everything else, it paid off.
"Funnily enough, people ask me how I felt when I actually went on the stage to perform and there were no nerves. It was just kind of I'm ready to do this now because I'd rehearsed for so long. I was really ready and I just went for it."
During the Eurovision season in 1993, Sonia didn't only have votes from across Europe behind her - but the support of her home city. Sonia said: "The support was amazing for me.
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"I had a private jet to go to Ireland and all my school turned up before I got on the plane with banners with good luck on them and everything. Everybody got behind me and actually my own sister was one of the backing singers, so we were together.
"It was just the most amazing time and I'll never ever forget it. A lot of people obviously love music and I think Eurovision brings people together. It's a wonderful celebration of all the different countries, all their different zones and eras of music."
Numerous acts have gone on to represent the UK after Sonia held the torch, with some acts having more success than others. But Sonia said the biggest advice she could give the next generation of Eurovision alumni is to "give it 100% and believe in yourself."
Sonia told the ECHO: "If somebody wants to represent the UK, you've got to believe in the song - when you're singing that song you've got to believe the words that you’re singing.
"It’s got to be a catchy song and you've got to give it 100% because you've only got one chance. The song is less than three minutes to make an impact."
Eurovision 1994 was very nearly held in Liverpool and now 30 years on from Sonia's Better The Devil You Know, the city is gearing up to host one of the biggest events of the year. Sonia said: "If I would have won I always said that if we could bring it back to Liverpool it would be absolutely amazing because it’s my hometown and I love Scousers and I love everything about Liverpool - the music, the history.
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"The history that we have, it couldn't have gone anywhere else this year. It’s amazing and people from far and wide will come and soak up our city. It’s just going to be off the scale."
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