Maria on road to pop stardom

The 21-year-old ex-St Richard's pupil stunned pupils and teachers with her perfect and powerful performance.

Her single, Chooza Looza, comes out on July 14 but the 21-year-old is already causing a stir further afield than her home town.

She has already struck-up a substantial fan base, with her video demanded regularly on Sky request programmes MTV and Box.

After performing three songs from her album, all co-written with producer Simon Perry, Maria answered questions from the crowd and signed autographs.

Her record label, Telstar, famous for names such as Mis-Teeq and Craig David, has made her a major priority for a breakthrough into the music industry this year. They describe her as fiesty and unwilling to compromise herself or her music.

Maria has been making a name for herself by touring with Busted and will be performing on CD:UK, GMTV, Top Of The Pops, RI:SE and Popworld soon.

In her own words, her music is "very guitar driven and edgy and not your usual commercial pop music".

Her video shows Maria zooming through the streets of Richmond on the back of a truck at 50 miles an hour.

"We started filming at five in the morning, and I've never worked so hard in my life. But it was a brilliant experience."

The making of the video was filmed by MTV Hits.

Maria has spent the last year writing and recording her album, to be released in October.

Landing the role as Sandy in the St Richard's production of Grease was the prompt she needed to make a career out of singing. Soon after starting a performing arts course she was spotted and signed up by Julian Close of Silent Records.

Appearing as guest support artist on the Busted tour was one of Maria's best experiences yet, and something fans at St Richard's wanted to hear about.

"I had such a laugh. Busted were great; really friendly."

Maria has been with her all-male four-piece live band - bassist Jim, guitarist Justin, organist Rich and drummer Damon - for seven months.