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Previous winners include Birdy!

The UK's largest music singing competition for singers and songwriters travelled to Dewsbury this week.The last area final for 2010 being the North East England area final were the best unsigned acts from across the North East with the regional winners from Newcastle, Sheffield and Cleakheaton all competing in a bid to make it to the grand final at the O2 in London.

Here the judges give us some feedback from the event, but remember it could all change at the grand final. Those who didn’t make it through on the day there is one more opportunity to make the O2 with the Wildcard vote; www.openmicuk.co.uk/national_vote

Views expressed by Judges are opinions and subjective to that particular Judge panel and in no way reflect the views of Open mic UK but are published with a view to be positive and beneficial to the performing act’s so they may take on board with a view to helping  them.

Judges Singer songwriter Bob Young, Real radio’s Guy Harris, celebrity Judge formerly with another level Dane Bowers, professional singer Karen Corson and Future Music’s Chris Grayston.

Under 18’s

Lucy Hughes; Lucy needs to concentrate on pitch as most of the performance was out of tune. Lucy is a better singer than the song chosen to perform.

Olivia Coe; Great image looked every bit the pop star. Need to work on control of microphone on the big notes just draw the microphone away from mouth as increasing the volume.

Jessi Jane; Looked comfortable and like she wanted to be there, the performance would have benefitted from even more conviction as has the right moves.

Lucy McSorley; Lucy’s song was a well written original song. Bit nervy guitar playing didn’t always sound great and lost her way at one point.

Mellia; Good harmonies, polished performance and professionally put together routine. Lost it a little bit vocally on the rotating back to back sequence but pulled it round quickly.

Rebecca Arundel; Rebecca put together a heartfelt and well written song, making the performance a sincere one.

Lauren Smith; Looked like a star in the making with a confident performance with great runs in the vocal would have preferred a less drab song as a cover choice a little uninspiring.

Shannon McLean; Despite the nerves composed herself very well but struggled with the key and started off key. Has a lovely tone and looked like she was loving being on stage which is always good!

Victoria Haslam; Great confidence and with a little more conviction in the expression be almost there performance wise.

Hollie Shearer; Hollie has vocally improved with every performance in the competition although song pitched too low for Hollies voice. The song choice was a little obvious and could look to pick something that could lead to give more performance on stage.

Molly Scott; Wow again another great performance won’t be long before we see her on a bigger stage with the talent to go all the way. Restricted by stage microphone musical theatre performance.

Lauren Doyle; Not so sure the guitarist added anything but it was well sung and a good song choice albeit a little plain.

Lizzie Hogan; Well done you! Especially after the operation you had this week. Very skilled singer but could do with using hands to express, work on phrasing and breathing.

Alex Williams; A much stronger vocal from Alex this time than the regional final performance. Needed to get more involved with the dancers routine. Four is probably too many dancers, three would work better.

Lorna Boswell; Vocals suffered from tuning issues too much warbling going on too.

Bethanie Coates; A striking image and accessorised well as she did in the previous regional final round. Did struggle to keep with the ebb and flow of the dynamics of the song and just tried to do too much with the vocals.

Cortney Dixon; Another strong performance and original image but vocal flat on occasions and will need to get this perfect.

Leanne Slasor; Great song choice and well worked routine but vocally wasn’t quite as good as the performance.  Pay attention to all the notes give them all the same conviction.

Jenna Shingleton; Good image but a little over performed, also a shame it was another obvious and dated cover song choice.

Kasia Howley; One of the stronger vocals of the day, really went for it. Needs to pick up an image for herself as an act and a more current song choice.

Hollie Barker; Worked the stage well and has no doubt improved every performance. Need to be more dynamic still.

Caeser; Very theatrical but well performed maybe a bit too over staged? Better dynamics could have brought it to a more dramatic end.  Great they alternated lead but vocals varied with some performers much stronger than others.