Local girls move ahead in national singing contest (From Watford Observer)

Local girls move ahead in TeenStar music competition

5:20pm Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News By Kathryn Snowdon, Reporter

A singing duo said they are ‘ecstatic’ to be through to the regional finals of the TeenStar music competition.

Livi Fullman, from Radlett, and Hollie Berman, from Bushey, make up the band Red Is Blonde.

The fifteen year olds passed the first stage of the competition on Sunday with their performance of The Kooks’ song Naïve.

Hollie said: "I am just ecstatic. I was jumping up and down when we found out and since then I haven’t been able to stop smiling.

"I can’t believe we got through."

In total, the competition consists of four stages, with the final set to take place at London’s O2 Arena.

Livi said: "I am really excited. I know it’s only the first round but the organisers are expecting 8,000 people to audition in the country and we were the only ones in our audition group to get through."

The reason behind the band’s unusual name is, quite simply, their hair colour.

Both students at Yavneh College, Borehamwood, are self taught on the piano and guitar, and are currently taking graded singing lessons.

Looking towards the future, Livi said the girls definitely want to continue with music.

Red Is Blonde said they both look up to a variety of musicians, particularly singer-songwriters such as Ed Sheeran.

Livi said: "One of the reasons we entered the competition was to give us a way into music.

"Just getting through to this round means we are performing infront of people and hopefully building contacts."

Livi and Hollie said they enjoy being creative, with both of them doing Art GCSE and performing in school productions.

TeenStar’s regional finals are set to take place on April 21 in Camden and will involve each act having an allotted time of no more than three minutes.

To view Red Is Blonde’s YouTube channel, visit www.youtube.com/redisblonde