A dream role for young singers

Aug 29 2007 by Gordon Barr, Evening Chronicle

A GROUP of budding stars from across the region will be saying thank you for the music when they step on to the stage of the Sunderland Empire for ABBA Mania.

Earlier this month the tribute band ran a regionwide competition to offer one lucky group of talented young singers the opportunity to perform live on stage on opening night, and it will be youngsters from the Tyneside Stage School who will accompany the famous pop tribute group.

The team of 20 children from Washington, South Shields, Sunderland, Durham, Boldon and Seaham will be singing along to the ABBA classic I Have a Dream. During ABBA’S 1979 world tour, they had a different school choir come on stage with them every night to perform the song, as part of UNICEF’s Year of the Child.

On hearing the news that the stage school choir had won the competition, Tyneside Stage School director Elissa Hudson said: “This is fantastic news for the students. They only rehearsed the song for 10 minutes before being recorded, so they’ve done really well.”