Sonja Bishop

Sonja’s interest for music began when she was only three years old. At age 10, she was performing gospel at the Church but her actual carrier started at the age of 15. She performed country music in a band called Country Life. They were touring around the Nordic countries. She performed Swedish dance music in 1988 with a group called Husbandeth.

In 1989 Sonja decided to participate in a Finnish Country Music Contest. To her delight she won first place! This honor entitled her to represent Finland in the Euro Country Music Master in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Sonja finished an impressive seventh in Europe at age 18. In 1990 Sonja recorded her first album, "My Best Friends".

While singing with Country Life, Sonja met another vocalist, Helené Nylund, with whom she formed a vocal duo. They traveled and performed extensively in the Nordic countries for ten years. They recorded two albums together. Their first joint album was "Straight from Our Hearts" in 1992. Their second album was a collection of Swedish Christmas songs.

In 2002 she participated in the biggest country music contest in USA, “Colgate Country Showdown”. Sonja was only two points shy of becoming the Country Showdown winner for state of Washington. Sonja participated in the Finnish selection for the Eurovision song contest 2004 and she came 7th with the song "Should I run, Should I hide".

In 2005-2006, Sonja was working on an album with songs by the legendary Latvian composer, Raimonds Pauls. Sonja recorded an English version of his most popular songs Million Roses (Davaja Marina). The new English name of the song is “Do you know” and in 2005, Sonja got the honor to perform the song at the Gada Balva Music Awards in Riga, Latvia. In August 2005, Sonja released a new radio single in Latvia, Y’love who Y’love music by Raimonds Pauls, and lyrics by Guntars Racs, Latvia and Molly-Ann Leikin, USA. MicRec Publishing/Red Amaryllis publishes the song.

In 2006 she signed a contract with Micrec (Microphone records) in Latvia and released the album ”Sonja Bishop sings Raimonds Pauls”. In 2006 she participated together with the Latvian performer Amber, at the Latvian selection for the Eurovision song contest and they came in fourth place with the magnificent anthem "Later". In 2007 Sonja was nominated for “best pop album” in Latvia.

During 2008-2009 Sonja has worked on her next album and this time also as a songwriter. Sonja also composes music for other artists and signed a publishing deal with Sugar House Publishing in 2009.

In 2009 Sweden songs released a radio single in Sweden, “Touched by an angel”

Besides Sonja does a lot of performing and writing her own music, she also works as a vocal coach for students and artists.

Please also visit Sonja Bishop on:

http://www.myspace.com/sonjabishop