A The King’s School pupil sings this weekend for the chance to play at a national unsigned music competition final in London.

Emma Lauran, 16, from Whimple, has beaten off nearly 10,000 other acts to perform at the area finals of ‘Live and Unsigned’ in the Portsmouth Guildhall.

It is the UK’s biggest original music competition to unearth new talent, and if Emma impresses the judges as she has in the previous rounds she will be one of the youngest acts through to the final at the O2 arena in the capital in July.

There the final remaining acts will compete to be named the hottest unsigned act in the country and perform in front of thousands of spectators as well as a professional judging panel from Kerrang magazine, NME Radio and BBC Radio 1.

The overall winner will be offered a recording and management contract worth up to �50,000, but Emma, who only learnt to play the guitar two years ago, has to juggle her musical ambitions with her studies as her AS Level exams start next week.

She still has time to fit in a performance at Mama Stone’s in Exeter on Wednesday however, and the 16 year-old has already lined-up appearances at several summer festivals including the Exeter Fringe Festival, and has appeared on BBC Radio Devon and Exeter FM recently.