ROYAL School upper sixth-form student Charlie Gill had the experience of a lifetime when she performed with Farnham Youth Choir in the ITV X Factor live final at Wembley Arena before Christmas.

She was one of 40 young choir members, aged 11 to 18, who sang alongside finalist Scarlett Lee as she performed Sir Elton John’s Your Song and shared the billing with the contestants, series judge Robbie Williams, global superstar George Ezra, Emeli Sandé and former X Factor winner Leona Lewis.

Charlie said: “I have been singing with FYC since I was 12 and in this, my last year, I was thrilled to perform with them in this amazing event. On the Friday night before the live final, the choir visited the Metropolis Studio in Chiswick, one of the biggest recording studios in Europe, for a three-hour session where we recorded the backing vocals for Scarlett Lee’s performance that would be released on iTunes after the show.

“On Saturday, we arrived at Wembley Arena at 11am and were immediately plunged into our first rehearsal of the day. It was exciting to see how they prepared for such a big event and to see some of the judges and presenters during the rehearsals. When it was finally time to perform I was overwhelmed by the noise of all the supporters in the arena since I had never performed in front of so many people. Scarlett was amazing, and performing on the X Factor was an incredible experience - especially as we managed to impress Simon Cowell.”