Sonia is set to star in ‘Hollyoaks’ as part of an upcoming Eurovision-themed episode.
The Liverpudlian singer – who represented the United Kingdom in 1993 with Better The Devil You Know, finishing in second place – has already filmed her cameo appearance for the Channel 4 soap.
A show insider said: “Everyone was so excited to have Sonia on set. A lot of the cast are big fans of her.
“When producers decided to do a Eurovision episode, they knew Sonia would be perfect as she’s a local girl and one of the UK’s most successful entrants ever.
“And her performance was fantastic. It went down a storm. Fans are going to love it,” they added (via Daily Star).
The special episode will celebrate this year’s Eurovision being staged in Liverpool and will see Sonia belt out her classic entry.
It’s the first time Eurovision has been in the UK since it was held in Birmingham in 1998, during which Dana International won with Diva.
The United Kingdom is hosting the 2023 edition of the Contest on behalf of last year’s winners Ukraine, with production designer Julio Himede opening up about his “immersive” vision for the show in an exclusive interview with RETROPOP.
“We very carefully spent a lot of time looking at camera angles and floor plans to make everything feel united,” he said of the show, which has the slogan ‘United By Music’. “The arena’s quite big, so how do we make it feel like it’s all part of this ‘hug’, this welcoming message that we want to portray. So there’s a lot of production values that we bring into it.”
Referring to the set as “an immersive environment and a landscape that includes the audience and the artists performing on stage as one,” there are more than 450 square metres of staging, bringing together another 220 square metres of independently moving and turning video screens, as well as over 700 video tiles integrated into the floor and more than 1500 metres of LED lights.
“Lighting plays a major factor in how the viewers at home experience the set design, as well as other effects like pyro, smoke,” he added, revealing there are elements of automation and lighting in this year’s show that have never been seen at Eurovision before. “There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors that we bring to make it feel immersive.”
A big part of that, he revealed, are expansive video screens. “Eighty per cent of the architecture of the set is made out of video panels and video surfaces – not only on the back walls, but also on the floor, the ceiling, and the side sections – so that allows us to transform the stage design in a matter of seconds, whoever is performing,” Julio shared.
