A 10-year-old girl from Douglas has teamed up with the stars of music and theatre, hoping to boost a charity CD to number one in the Christmas charts.
Grace Lee, from Albert Terrace, is no stranger to the bright lights having already appeared in the final of Manx talent show The Next Big Thing, sung with the cast of the hit West End musical Matilda and performed with Shane Filan out of Westlife, a popular Irish boy band of the 2000s.
Grace, along with Shane and the cast of Matilda, performed the song When I Grow Up from the musical before an audience of 2,300 people at the Bord Gais Energy theatre in Dublin. The live performance was recorded to make what they hope will be an Irish Christmas number one.
Proceeds from the disc will go to the Children’s Medical Research Foundation, based in Ireland, and the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.
Chris said: ‘Grace is a young ambassador for Alder Hey Hospital and she got nominated for her fundraising efforts for the hospital where she has been a patient. She is involved with amateur theatre in the Isle of Man, so when she was on Surprise Surprise she was given the chance to sing with the cast of Matilda.
‘She rehearsed with them for several weeks in London, then performed in front of a live audience.’
‘It’s a massive theatre and the cast provided the backing so it was a pretty special night,
He added: ‘[Matilda songwriter] Tim Minchin was asked to release the rights for When I Grow Up, which he agreed to, and following her appearance in Surprise Surprise, Grace was asked to play the part of Matilda for the CD singing with Shane Filan.’
The song was recorded live at the theatre in one take and was released on Friday. So far, as part of the promotion for the CD, Grace has appeared twice on Irish television, once singing again with Shane.
The single should now be available on iTunes, Googleplay and Amazon Music, and through HMV in Ireland.
Source: IOM Today
