A Carlisle singer is celebrating after a successful appearance on ITV's The Voice UK.

Courtney O'Neil, 21, has clinched one of the last two places on Team Tom - singers backed by Welsh legend Sir Tom Jones in the early stages of this series.

Courtney impressed him with her take on "When You Say Nothing At All", a country song that was a hit for Boyzone frontman Ronan Keating in 1999.

The popular young country singer, who is a huge fan of Dolly Parton, is well-known in the city.

Inspired by her dad and uncle, the pair have mentored Courtney and performed together locally.

Former Trinity School pupil Courtney performed in the sixth edition of the blind auditions of the hit ITV talent show.

Stars will.i.am, Jennifer Hudson, Sir Tom Jones and Olly Murs are building up their teams of 10 before the battle stage of the competition.

They have their backs to the singers in the blind auditions and strike a button to send their chairs spinning round if they like what they hear.

If more than one of the star coaches turn around, the amateur singer chooses the team they want to join.

Viewers last night saw Courtney, a former member of the city-based StagedRight Youth Theatre, almost overcome with emotion when Sir Tom turned round as her audition came to its climax.

Before her performance, Courtney said: "It would literally be the achievement of my life to get one turn."

In a clip shown immediately before she took to the stage, Courtney boasted about her home city.
"Carlisle is a really nice place to live," she said.

"It is the kind of place that if you run out of teabags, someone will give you some."

She was accompanied to the blind auditions by her family, including her parents, and boyfriend, who were seen joining host Emma Willis backstage during Courtney's song.

Courtney said: "I have sung since, well, as long as I can remember with my dad and uncle.

"They showed me the ropes and what I need to do and I've tred to get as far as I can with this here."

After spinning round in his seat for Courtney, Sir Tom told her: "I love the way you sing.

"You have a very honest sounding voice and very much in tune.

"I like what you did with the song. I loved what you did with the whole thing."

Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am said her song choice was "awesome" before explaining why he didn't spin his chair.

He said there were "inconsistencies" in Courtney's voice which he believes Sir Tom will help smooth out by doing a "magic trick" to help her find her singing "sweet spot".

Two years ago Courtney had impressed fellow StagedRight alumni member Matt Pagan so much that he signed her up for his management agency.

Matt is a singing star in his own right as part of Collabro, the group which won Britain's Got Talent - another ITV competition - in 2014.

Watch Courtney's audition here: