Cheryl Baker

Cheryl Baker

Cheryl Baker (born Rita Crudgington, on 8 March 1954, in Bethnal Green, London) is an English television presenter and singer. She is most famous for being a member of 80s pop group Bucks Fizz, and has performed for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest twice, winning it the second time .

Early career

After leaving school and a series of secretarial jobs, Cheryl Baker began her professional singing career with the band Co-Co.

The group entered the Song For Europe in 1976 with the song "Wake Up". They came second, being beaten by (eventual Eurovision winners) Brotherhood of Man by two points.

The group continued to perform together and in 1978, they entered the Song For Europe again with "The Bad Old Days". This time they won and went on to perform for the UK in Paris. The song managed 11th place - the lowest placing by a UK entry up to that point. In 1997, Cheryl told the BBC TV show The O'Zone that after this experience, she "would never do it again. Never would I put myself through this again!" The song became a hit single however, reaching the British top 20. On the back of this, the group released their first (and only) album as well as further singles. None of these found any success.

In 1980, the group tried for Eurovision one more time. Now under a new name, The Main Event, their song "Gonna Do My Best" came last in the Song For Europe and soon afterwards, the group disbanded.

Bucks Fizz

A few months later, Baker was contacted by songwriter and manager, Nicola Martin, who was setting up a new group under the name Bucks Fizz, with a view to entering a song "Making Your Mind Up" into the Song For Europe in 1981. Joined by Mike Nolan, Bobby G and Jay Aston, Baker performed the song at the contest and won. On April 4th 1981, Baker represented the UK again at the Eurovision Song Contest. The song went on to win by a margin of four points and Bucks Fizz were catapulted into overnight stardom.

By winning the contest, Baker became only the 3rd singer ever to represent the UK twice, following in the footsteps of Ronnie Carroll and Cliff Richard. When Bucks Fizz went on to win the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Making Your Mind Up", Baker thus became one of the few artists to take part in Eurovision to win at their 2nd attempt. According to "The Eurovision Song Contest - The Official History" by author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor, Baker also made the single biggest improvement by any Eurovision competitor in the contest, moving up from 11th in 1978 to 1st in 1981.

"Making Your Mind Up" became a No.1 hit in many countries, including the UK and began a run of success for the group for the next five years. Baker along with the group toured the world and gained many hit singles and albums, including two more British No.1s; "The Land Of Make Believe" and "My Camera Never Lies". Bucks Fizz became established as one of the biggest groups of the 1980s.

In December 1984, Baker was involved in a serious coach crash while on tour with the group. She was injured and rushed to hospital. She made a speedy recovery, but collegue Mike Nolan suffered serious head wounds and following this, she set up the charity HeadFirst, which deals with crash victims, specifically relating to head injuries. Baker continues to raise money for this charity today.

In the mid-80s, while still with the group, Baker embarked on a career in television presenting. Working on shows such as "Record Breakers" with Roy Castle and "The Saturday Picture Show" with Mark Curry, she continued both careers in tandem, although always maintained that singing was her first love and "Bucks Fizz always come first".

Bucks Fizz scored their final hit in 1988, and in the same year, Baker began presenting her own TV Show "Eggs 'n' Baker". This went on to run for five years.

During this time, she also released two solo singles "If Paradise Is Half As Nice" in 1987 and "Sensuality" in 1992, although neither of these found chart success.

Still continuing with touring and TV work, Baker finally quit Bucks Fizz in December 1993.

Recent career

After leaving Bucks Fizz, Baker carried on presenting "Record Breakers", now alongside Kriss Akabusi. In 1997 she became the subject of the TV Biography show "This Is Your Life".

Into the 2000s, Baker made many guest appearances on television, including The Weakest Link, GMTV, and Bargain Hunt. She has also participated in a number of reality television shows, such as Drop the Celebrity, The Salon and I'm Famous and Frightened!.

For the Eurovision Song Contest 2005, she read out the points from the United Kingdom. In the BBC's 50th anniversary celebration of the show Congratulations, she introduced the song "Waterloo" by ABBA. Later on during the same programme, she sung Buck Fizz's winning song "Making Your Mind Up" live with Nolan and later member Shelley Preston.

Baker's other presenting work includes the satellite and Freeview shopping channel price-drop tv. In 2006, she made was a special guest star on ITV Play's cult late night quiz show The Mint.

In 2006 Baker played the role of Vi Moore in the London production of Footloose, the musical based on the 1984 motion picture of the same name, at the Novello Theatre as well as promoting a shampoo which helps thinning hair.

She is currently performing selected gigs with Nolan and Preston under the name 'The Original Bucks Fizz' and alongside the other original members, Bobby G and Jay Aston, appeared in the video for Comic Relief's 2007 single, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)".

A new Bucks Fizz CD with a bonus DVD, The Very Best of Bucks Fizz was released on 14 May, 2007.

Personal life

Cheryl got married to Steve Stroud on 25th January 1992 and gave birth to twin girls called Kyla and Natalie in 1994.

See also

• Jay Aston
• Bobby G
• Mike Nolan
• Shelley Preston

External links

• CherylBaker.net - http://www.cherylbaker.net
• Bucks Fizz The Early Years
• The World of Cheryl Baker - http://www.geocities.com/michael_prizeman/