Long before her single «It feels so good» began making its mark on the pop charts, Sonique was an acclaimed DJ in international dance music.
Now that she's in the limelight, the British performer says her new pop star title doesn't mean she's pushing her turntables aside. "People assume that this is stepping up from DJing, and I'm like, 'Wait a minute!'" Sonique said recently. "I have two jobs, so they both have to sit right with each other."
And Sonique makes sure they do: During her live shows, she stays close to her club roots by alternating from the spotlight to behind the booth. "When you see her at a club spinning records and then step out to sing it live and just nail it, it's a really cool dynamic," said Avery Lipman, senior vice president at her current label Republic/Universal Records.   
Sonique started out as a singer, recording her first song when she was still a teenager. In 1990 she was credited for the "transcendental loop-groove" on a track called «Zombie Mantra» on the album «Set the Controls for the Heart of the Bass» (see left), the debut record of William Orbit's hottest project Bass-O-Matic at that time before teaming with DJ Mark Moore in S'Express

About Farmclub.com In the United States, Sonique was the first artist signed to a major label through a project called Farmclub.com ... a website of the same name focused on music from unsigned artists, and there was a show on the USA Network called "Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub. com" that gave these up-and-coming artists a chance to perform alongside big-name artists associated with the label (Farmclub was part of the Universal / Interscope conglo- merate in the United States at the time). The intention of the live music television show was to feature A-list talent and promoting unsigned bands through national exposure and website interaction. The hour long series featured performan- ces and interview segments on the music scene around the world. Sonique has been profiled on CNN as part of the Farmclub explosion, it's a whole new way for artists to get signed.          more ...

a year later. The dance-pop duo charted in the UK with such singles as «Nothing to Lose» - which Sonique co-wrote and sang on - but never broke wide in the U.S. She then turned her attention toward DJing, training for three years before making her live debut. Not long after she did, she developed followings in Europe, Hong Kong and the U.S.
Still, Sonique kept one foot in singing, contributing vocals to tracks by veteran techno producer / DJ Josh Wink («Higher State of Consciousness») and obscure acts such as Gusto («Disco's Revenge»), Helicopter («On Ya Way») or Kendoh («Nagasaki»). Sonique has done the cover artwork for the 1998 album «Waves» by Electronic Universe (see left).   
Sonique was the first artist signed to Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub, the Universal Music online imprint started by industry veterans Jimmy Iovine and Doug Morris. So she is also one of the first musical success stories originating from the Internet. When Iovine and Morris heard a cut from her album, they decided to make her album «Hear Me Cry» the debut release of their Internet label, Farmclub.com. The subsequent success of Farmclub's late-night TV show and extensive press coverage carried Sonique along for the ride.
On Valentine's Day 2000, she released her album «Hear My Cry», featuring «It Feels So Good». The song now [May 01, 2000] is at #10 after 15 weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (later it will peak at #8 there). Sonique admits to being a bit shocked by its success. "I'm quite surprised, to be honest, that it's happened here [in the U.S.] for me," she said. "I'm in the whirlwind of it all."      

The singer wrote the tune four years ago and released it as a single in the UK two years later [in 1998]. Though it charted, Sonique hadn't bothered to save the DAT of the backing track, so when the time came to play the song live, she had to go back into the studio to re-record it. "That's how much I didn't expect anything to happen with this record," she said. "As far as I was concerned, that was it."
But that was far from it. The record, originally out in November 1998 in the UK, actually became a success story in America accidentally after a UK import of 10,000 copies of the record. After a DJ in Tampa, Florida, gave «It Feels So Good» heavy play in a club, radio stations in Florida began following suit in late 1999. Among them was KPOW-FM in Miami, which claims to be the first station to have added the tune into regular rotation. Programming director Kid Curry said he decided to "beat the hell" out of «It Feels So Good» because he thought it would ease listeners into trance music, which he said he believed was about to burst from the underground.
"The particular sound of this song meant something different," he said. "It was the one sort of mass-appeal trance song I could play that wouldn't offend anybody. It was a big enough hit that no one was going to label it as a trance song - it was just a big damn hit record."
A spokesman for Sonique's label Serious said, "Everyone wants to support a British artist that has broken the US charts. It gives the UK a chance to define the US dance scene." Her success in the US has helped the record to get playlisted by Radio One, Kiss and Capital in the UK before its release later this month [May 2000].
The album's second single, «Sky» is already receiving about 60 spins a week at KPOW, Curry said. The song won't be released officially to radio until June 20, but Sonique is planning to shoot a video for it as well.