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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.

18-25 age category

Sophie Burgess; Sophie was over stretched in the vocal and vocal was a little thin in places.

Matt Bond; Strong vocal had no image with it, must do something about his appearance.

Ana-Mai Addenbrooke; Excellent range and a beautiful voice which together with a nice choice of covers that all complimented each other nicely.

Lawrence Kazinsky; Looked like a pop star but failed to really grab the attention and is a better singer than his choice of song.

Jessica Hobson; Very talented performance, strong voice and good connection with the audience. Playing keys made the cover her own but would have liked to see her perform her own song.

Elena and Mike; Lovely tone in the voice but guitar didn’t always flow. Bit messy when singing together at the end.

MissDemeanor; Well put together polished routine, changed the lead well, looked fantastic but need to be careful as to share lead as vocals are at different levels only as good as the worst vocal. Pick 1 or 2 members only to be lead vocals for the performance at the O2 and anything is possible.

Stephanie Hargreaves; Clever medley of Eminem songs however vocals did thin at times.

Carmel Bondswell; Didn’t captivate in the same way as in the regional finals when just came across vocally so silky with soul this suffered from pitch problems.

Silvar; Energetic with good confidence but engagement in covers wasn’t anything like the same intensity as the original.

Rebecca Olley; Judges have no song choice down from the artist so a lovely performance to her own song? Needed more energy to the performance.

Milla Jirin; Great vocal control albeit strained at times with the committed performance.

Darks; Good stage presence but the song lacked dynamics just a bit full on all the time, need to let the track and vocals breathe.

Georgina Taylor; Obviously has a strong voice but at times sounds a little abrasive to the ear..Loud isn’t always good and became shouted in places! Guitarist looked as miserable as hell!

Rhi Watkins; Well played and nice vocal but as the performance went on became a bit snorey...

Richard Morgan; Good voice but song choice and performance made it too karaoke with too many gaps and not enough singing.

Ruth Kelly; Different voice albeit shouted in places needs to however add the other pieces to it; Looking nice in a dress isn’t an image.

Bash Pridgeon; Just too messy going from one instrument to the other but what a voice David Gray cover sounded sweet.

Brutal Dynamics; Lacked a well worked routine...why ask everyone to stand up?

Ashleigh Lowes; Guitar being in tune is essential. Second song was more enjoyable once it got going but performance overall looked uncomfortable.