Siobhan Dillon

]

In week one of the live shows Dillon sang the Shania Twain hit, "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!". In week two she sang the Tina Arena song, "Chains". In the lead up to the third week's show, David Ian talked to the girls about fitness and stamina and sent them on a fitness test mission with Olympic Athlete Iwan Thomas, requiring the Marias to complete an assault course. Dillon completed the course in the fastest time of under two minutes. On the show she sang the Pointer Sisters hit, "Jump!". Zoe Tyler then asked her to sing the final lines from her audition piece, "I Could Have Danced All Night".

In week four she sang "Songbird" by Christine McVie, which resulted in her being named the unofficial "Maria of the night". Andrew Lloyd Webber chose her to perform "Truly Scrumptious" with the children from the musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". In the fifth week, when there were two live shows, she sang "All That Jazz" from the musical "Chicago" accompanied by six male dancers. Dillon successfully got through to the second live show of the evening but faced the second sing off with Aoife Mulholland. They sang "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from the musical "Evita". Lloyd Webber saved Dillon because he believed she "had the strongest voice which could carry eight shows a week".

In the run-up to the final in week six, the three finalists and Lloyd Webber went to Salzburg in Austria and visited some of the locations made famous by the "The Sound of Music", including Leopoldskron Palace and Nonnberg Abbey, to give the finalists a chance to understand the real Maria von Trapp.cite news
title = The Hills are Alive...
publisher = BBC
date = 2006-09-13
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/maria/maria/news/2006/09/13/36369.shtml
accessdate = 2008-10-12 ] On the final night she performed two songs, "Anyone Who Had a Heart" and "My Favorite Things" from "The Sound of Music". She was eliminated during the night's first public vote, which meant she came third overall.

Performances on "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?"

*Please note this is a list of her individual performances only

"Grease"

Dillon made her West End theatre debut in 2007 playing Patty Wimcox in the musical "Grease". Her first appearance in the show was on 25 July 2007 at the Piccadilly Theatre in London. Show producer, David Ian said of Dillon, "I knew that Siobhan was something special when I first saw her for The Sound of Music, and I am very pleased that she will be joining the cast of Grease."cite news
title = Maria Dillon Plays Patty in Grease, Jibson’s Flight
publisher = whatsonstage.com
date = 2007-05-24
url = http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821180001520
accessdate = 2008-10-12 ] cite news
title = TV’s Maria Runner-Up Siobhan Dillon Lands Role in Grease
publisher = london.broadway.com
date = 2007-05-24
url = http://london.broadwaycom/story/id/3007441
accessdate = 2008-10-12 ] Dillon was also the understudy for the characters of Sandy and Marty and played both roles several times during her run in the show. She finished the role on 14 June 2008.

"Can't Smile Without You"

In July 2008 she was cast in the tour of "Can't Smile Without You", a new musical based on an original idea by Bill Kenwright and featuring the hit songs of Barry Manilow, alongside Chesney Hawkes and "I'd Do Anything" contestant Francesca Jackson.cite news
last = Smith
first = Alistair
title = Singer Hawkes cast in Manilow musical’s UK tour
publisher = BBC
date = 2006-07-28
url = http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/21398/singer-hawkes-cast-in-manilow-musicals-uk
accessdate = 2008-10-12] It opened at the Churchill Theatre, in the London Borough of Bromley on 28 August 2008 and is due to tour in England and Scotland until 29 November.cite news
last = Green
first = James
title = Can’t Smile Without You
publisher = BBC
date = 2008-09-08
url = http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/21695/cant-smile-without-you
accessdate = 2008-10-12]

Other Work

Dillon won a record deal with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s company the Really Useful Group (RUG) after "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?". She is said to be writing and recording her first album, although on her Myspace page she is quoted saying, that after Andrew Lloyd Webber announced during one of the live "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" shows that "a major record label" were interested in working with her, she started writing songs for her album and worked with producers and writers but that "due to unfortunate circumstances the album was never released..."cite web
title = Siobhan Dillon
publisher = MySpace
url = http://www.myspace.com/siobhandillon
accessdate = 2008-10-12]

On Christmas Eve 2007 she performed along with Lee Mead the winner of "Any Dream Will Do" and Connie Fisher together with other 'Maria' and 'Joseph' finalists in the BBC special festive reunion show "When Joseph met Maria!" celebrating both the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber BBC shows.

References

External links

*imdb name|id=2381553|name=Siobhan Dillon
* [http://www.siobhan-dillon.co.uk Siobhan Dillon website]
* [http://siobhandillon.blogspot.com/ Siobhan Dillon Fan Blog]
* [http://www.greasethemusical.co.uk/siobhanBlog.html Siobhan's Rehearsal Blog from Grease West End 2007 Website]
*MySpace|siobhandillon|Siobhan Dillon