Rita Maria Stroud, popularly known as Cheryl Baker, was a singer and songwriter born in England on March 8, 1954. She is an English pop artist who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981 with her band Bucks Fizz.
Early Years
She formerly sang with the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest-winning pop group Bucks Fizz, but she now goes by her stage name, the Fizz, due to licensing issues. Between 1981 and 1988, twenty of Bucks Fizz’s singles made it into the UK top sixty. Three of their songs, “Making Your Mind Up” (1981), “The Land of Make Believe” (1981), and “My Camera Never Lies” (1982), reached number one.
Rita Maria Crudgington was born Cheryl Baker on March 8, 1954, in Bethnal Green, London. Her father, Ted, was a cobbler by trade, and Doll was her mother’s maiden name.
After dropping out, Cheryl Baker worked as an assistant in a stockbroker’s office and sang in an amateur opera ensemble. When she was seventeen years old, she joined the band Bressingham Spire.
However, shortly after their breakup, she joined a different group that included Mike Read. Following this, she responded to an ad in Melody Maker seeking new members and joined Mother’s Pride, subsequently rechristened as Co-Co.
In 1976, the group’s song “Wake Up” was accepted into A Song for Europe. They finished in second place, two points behind the eventual winners of Eurovision, Brotherhood of Man.
Baker was a member of the longest Riverdance line and the world’s biggest jazz group; on Record Breakers, she also established a record for the longest rope slide, which she accomplished by going down Blackpool Tower.
The record-breaking longest onscreen kiss occurred in 1987 when Baker and Gyles Brandreth passionately embraced for three minutes and thirty-three seconds.
Love Life
On January 25, 1992, Baker wed Steve Stroud, who played bass for Cliff Richard’s band. They were blessed with twin girls after undergoing in vitro fertilization in June 1994. She became an Ambassador of the Festival4Stars talent competition after judging a national final in 2008.
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