WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Precious

Precious didn’t just want to “Say It Again”, they wanted to do it again at Eurovision 1999. So what happened…?

Girl group Precious was formed in 1998 by friends Sophie McDonnell (b.1976) and Jenny Frost (b.1978) and following several advertisements, they recruited Anya Lahiri (b.1982), Louise Rose and Kalli Clark-Sternberg to the team. Without even a song to their name, Precious were selected to represent the UK at the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest and they did so with “Say It Again”, a song written by Paul Varney, who was one half of the duo Yell who had a top ten hit with “Instant Replay” in 1990. The track was producer by Danish artist Mich Hedin Hansen aka Cutfather, who would later go on to produce songs for A1, Kylie and Blue to name a few.

“Say It Again” was not the success that everyone had hope for the UK that year and ended up coming 12th, the lowest finish for the country since 1987. The song was, however, a success in the music charts and went to No.6 at home as well as charting in Sweden and Belgium. Precious began work on their debut album soon after and enlisted some pretty big names including Anders Bagge (Madonna), Andy Hill (Celine Dion) and one of the biggest hitmakers of all, Diane Warren, to come up with tracks. This lot meant business! A year later in the spring of 2000, Precious released “Rewind” as the first taste of this album and it got to No.11 in the UK. Their other singles, “It’s Gonna Be My Way” and “New Beginning”, were not so and neither was the self-titled album, which landed in November.

Sadly for Precious, time was not and they were dropped by EMI Records in early 2001. Jenny Frost wasted no time and joined Atomic Kitten that year and enjoyed number one hits with “Whole Again”, “Eternal Flame” and “The Tide Is High” as well as a string of top ten hits into 2010. Jenny is also a model for Playboy underwear when she’s not singing with the group as well as a solo artist. Anya Lahiri ditched the music business and became an actress first and more recently as a fitness instructor. Sophie McDonnell also turned her back on music and became a children’s television presenter while Louise Rose has continued to pop up as a vocalist on a number of tracks most notably DB Boulevard’s 2002 hit, “Believe”. Kalli joined Anya as an actress but since the mid 2000’s has dropped out of sight and sound.