Precious were a British

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

consisting of Louise Rose, Anya Lahiri, Sophie McDonnell, Kalli Clark-Sternberg, and Jenny Frost. They first achieved fame as the UK's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest and went on to become a moderately popular act until the group disbanded in late 2000.

Biography

Precious were established in late 1998 by friends Sophie McDonnell and Jenny Frost. A set of auditions saw the remaining members join: Anya Lahiri, Kalli Clark-Sternberg and Louise Rose. Rose took up lead vocals. In March 1999, Precious were voted in to represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

in May 1999. Their song " Say It Again" proved popular and the group signed with EMI to release the song as a single on 17 May. It debuted at No. 6 in the

UK singles chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. In the Eurovision Song Contest, Precious did not carry off the grand prix with "Say It Again", sharing the 12th position.O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 Precious went on to put together their debut self-titled album, working with songwriters and producers such as the Danish, Cutfather, and Joe and Chris Porter. On 20 March 2000 they released their second single "Rewind", which reached No. 11 in the UK. Precious released their third single, "It's Gonna Be My Way", on 26 June 2000 and it reached No. 27. Their final single was "New Beginning". The song failed to make an impact on the UK Singles Chart; it reached No. 50, becoming their only single not to reach the top 40. The group's debut album ''Precious'' was released 20 November 2000 but failed to chart and the group was dropped by their label. McDonnell later began presenting for BBC TV and Radio including their

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

brand, Frost replaced Kerry Katona in the group

Atomic Kitten Atomic Kitten is an English girl group formed in Liverpool in 1998, whose current members are Liz McClarnon, Jenny Frost and Natasha Hamilton. The group was founded by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) members Andy McCluskey and Stua ...

, and Lahiri returned to her modelling activities. Lahiri was one of the FHM Pit Girls in 2003, and she started a career as an actress, performing with

Jacqueline Bisset Winifred Jacqueline Fraser Bisset ( ; born 13 September 1944) is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in '' The Detective'', '' Bullitt'', and ''The Sweet Ride'', for which she re ...

and

Daniel Bernhardt Daniel Bernhardt (born 31 August 1965) is a Swiss actor, model, and martial artist. Career Bernhardt made his acting debut in the leading role in '' Bloodsport II: The Next Kumite'' (1996). He also appeared in two of its sequels and starred in ...

, and as a personal trainer. Lead singer Rose has worked with a number of other acts including D'Influence on the song "32 Flavours" in 2002, and Italian producers

DB Boulevard DB Boulevard was an Italian electronic music group, consisting of members, vocalist Moony (Monica Bragato), along with producers Alfred Azzetto, Diego Broggio and Mauro Ferrucci. In 2002, their song "Point of View" peaked at number 1 on the ''Bi ...

on the song "Believe" which reached #8 in Spain and #12 in Italy. She has also become an actress; her credits include the 2008 mini-series "Diamonds". Clark-Sternberg has since become a session singer.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

*
Official Precious Myspace Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Precious Eurovision Song Contest entrants for the United Kingdom English pop music groups Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1999 British pop girl groups English girl groups Musical groups established in 1998 Musical groups disestablished in 2000