How birthday karaoke put Emma on road to stardom

SHE'S never played a gig and was only spotted while singing karaoke at her 21st birthday party, but a previously unheard of singer from the Capital is heading for the Top 40 after appearing on an album alongside the likes of Rod Stewart and KT Tunstall.

Emma Anstruther, 25, got her big break after family friend and former Bay City Roller Stuart Wood heard her perform at her birthday party four years ago.

Now she has recorded old favourites the Skye Boat Song and Wild Mountain Thyme for The Great Big Scottish Songbook, a CD of hits featuring everything from the Corries and Jimmy Shand to Simple Minds and The Proclaimers.

The album is currently riding high in the Scottish Top 10, where it is outselling R'n'B sensation Usher, and it looks set to enter the UK Top 40.

The advertising sales executive, who lives in Juniper Green and is expecting her first child in a matter of weeks, has never played live and has only spent the equivalent of one full day in a recording studio.

But already she is being compared to US singer Eva Cassidy, whose cover of Sting's Fields of Gold became a huge international success following her death from cancer in 1996.

She said: "I blasted out a song for everyone at my 21st birthday and Stuart asked me if I wanted to come in and record something in the studio. I just went in for a wee shot to see what it was like in a proper recording studio – I had no idea the songs would end up on a proper album. The success of the album is absolutely great and it's come as a real surprise for everyone. The fact that one of my songs comes after a Rod Stewart track is amazing."

The young mum-to-be says that she has no plans to perform and is focusing on the birth of her child. I'm going to have a baby in ten weeks' time, so I won't be available for gigs," she said. "I'm still working as well and I'm not really a performer.

"I don't know what the future holds. Right now I'm concentrating on having my baby."

Despite her new-found stardom she is keeping her feet firmly on the ground and is pictured this week painting and decorating her new home in preparation for the imminent arrival of her baby.

Featuring many of the country's best-loved songs, The Great Big Scottish Songbook is a five-CD set including both traditional and contemporary tracks from record label EMI's back catalogue. Recent hits from Edinburgh-born KT Tunstall such as Suddenly I See and Black Horse appear alongside the likes of Harry Lauder's Stop Yer Ticklin' Jock.

An EMI spokesman told the Evening News: "We are delighted to include Emma's tracks, which sound lovely and are perfect for The Great Big Scottish Songbook."