Young singer's West End dream to come true at singing contest final

Nicole Clements, 15, will take to the stage in Westminster on Sunday.

Nicole auditioned for the West End Calling contest in October last year, and a panel of stage stars picked her to go through.

The next round - the heats - required her to perform in front of a sold out audience at the Rialto Theatre in Brighton.

Having reached the semi final, Nicole performed at the Stockwell Playhouse in London on February 25 this year, and was delighted to be chosen to go through to the Grand Final.

The final will be on Sunday May 27 at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s newest theatre, the Other Palace.

She was one of only 12 contestants, all aged between 8 and 21, to be hand picked by judges; Scott Paige (Made In Dagenham, Eugenius, The Addam’s Family), Daniel Buckley (The Book Of Mormon, Eugenius, Loserville) and Emily Tierney (Wicked, The Wizard Of Oz, Ghost the Musical).

She said: “What I love most about performing is being someone else and being able to tell their story. Also I like to inspire younger people, as I have been inspired by other musical theatre performers.

“I am so excited to have reached the final and be able to sing this song on a West End stage. West End Calling has given me so much more confidence as I never thought I would get this far, competing against such amazing singers.”

Nicole attends Pauline Quirke Academy, and will perform the lead female role Annie in the Academy’s summer production Trouble’s a Brewin’, at Her Majesty’s Theatre on July 8, and will appear in The Hawth’s youth summer production of Bugsy Malone.

She has also just finished playing Rosalie Mullins in The School of Rock in her school production.

A statement from the organisers said: “West End Calling is a nationwide musical theatre singing competition for young performers and which auditions all over the UK. Contestants audition and receive feedback from a variety of different West End stars during the process of the competition.

“It begins, with a private audition followed by two public performances leading up to the Grand Final.

“The competition has produced our final 24 out of hundreds of hopefuls that applied and will be split into two parts – the Junior final (9-15) and the senior final (16-21) – performing in front of an audience made up of industry professionals, agents, casting directors and the public.”

For more information visit: http://www.westendcalling.co.uk/Link

__