Entertainment

Having a Precious time

Precious meet Wogan: "He pretends to be a lot older than he is"

By BBC News Online's Darryl Chamberlain

While Dana International was winning 1998's Eurovision Song Contest, Louise Rose had just turned 18 and struggling to establish herself as a singer.

"I was doing personal appearances in clubs, fashion shows, I launched a motorbike, that kind of thing, just waiting to meet that special someone who can help you become famous," she says.

Now she is about to be famous because one year later she is preparing to fly out to Jerusalem as one-fifth of the UK's Eurovision entry, Precious.

Since winning the Song For Europe contest with Say It Again in March, it has been a busy month for Louise and the rest of the group: Jenny Frost, 20, Sophie McDonnell, 22, Kalli Clark-Sternberg, 17, and Anya Lahri, 18.

"This is just what I've always wanted. Early in my career, I always wanted to be working hard like this - I'd always tell them to give me more work!"

The group were already recording with songwriter Paul Varney when, without his knowledge, his publishers entered Say It Again into the Great British Song Contest