A WELLINGTON teenager will have double cause for celebration in a couple of weeks' time.

Lily Caddick completes her GCSE exams at Court Fields School just before her debut single is released on June 11.

She came to the attention of music manager Marc Nixon, who was searching for the voice to perform a song written by 80s pop star Simon Whitworth.

Marc was immediately struck by Lily, 16, and signed her to record Obviously, a song about first love and understanding your emotions.

"It's an incredible opportunity and I'm really excited," said Lily. "It's a magical experience.

"It's something I've always wanted to do but I've never really had the confidence before.

"It is quite stressful and tough having to manage my GCSEs at the same time, but if I'd told myself six months ago that I would be doing it, I wouldn't have believed it."

Lily loves creating and performing music.

Since he was a child she has enjoyed singing and dancing and has taken part in lots of performing arts opportunities across the country, including British Youth Musical Theatre and Urdang Associates.

More recently she has been writing and performing songs and has really enjoyed her time in the recording studio.

Locally she takes part in open mic nights and singing on stage at live gigs.

She is inspired by a wide range of musical genres including pop, country, dance, musical theatre and rock.

She is hoping to continue writing and releasing songs in the future and reach more people with her music.

Somerset County Gazette:

"My ambition is to go to art college after my GCSE," said Lily.

"I've always enjoyed creative writing and I want to write more songs.

"I've written about being happy with a cute little melody. Sometimes if I'm sad I'll write about that, releasing all my energy and emotion into that song."

Lily has received tremendous support from her schoolfriends and her family.

"I'm lucky to have supportive friends," she said. "It's not every day something like this happens.

"At school I've even had pupils I don't know come up to me and say they really enjoy my song.

"I'm relly blessed to have parents who are so supportive of me and always there for me wherever I perform, always in the audience."

Music manager Marc Nixon said: "I was brought to the attention of Lily at the beginning of the year and have now recorded her official debut single.

"I believe Lily is the next young star coming through and hopefully this is the beginning a fabulous journey for her."