Sian Evans joins list of Welsh number ones

Singer Sian Evans has joined an illustrious list of Welsh artists to have topped the UK singles chart, courtesy of her collaboration with DJ Fresh on the track Louder.

Sian Evans. Picture: Hacker Photography

The frontwoman of Kosheen provided vocals for the single, which comes 10 years after her first foray into the charts with Hide U, a smash for the Bristol-based trio.

she said: "It feels great; it feels fabulous. I guess that we knew, actually, that we had something pretty special on our hands. We were very confident in it, though we didn't have a clue it would turn out to be quite as viral as it has. We loved it when we were making it and that's a good sign."

Evans, who lives in the Vale of Glamorgan and went to school in Whitchurch in Cardiff, hooked up with drumn and bass producer DJ Fresh (aka Daniel Stein) and recorded five tracks with him. She said Stein kept her abreast of the single's performance as it shot to number one early last week and stayed there, going on to sell over 120,000 downloaded copies.

"He called me and told me it went into the charts at number 69 at 10am on Monday and by 1pm it was number one," she says. "My heart couldn't have taken sitting there and watching that."

The single is the latest in a line of Welsh chart-toppers, stretching back to Shirley Bassey's As I Love You in 1959.

For lots more information and video content about Welsh number ones, visit our Welsh number ones page.