The Voice Kids: Edinburgh's Elyssa Tait to feature in festival shows, Vocal Star final and potential girl band

The Edinburgh teenager has been singing since the age of nine – and after making it to the semi-finals on The Voice, the 13-year-old’s future looks bright

An Edinburgh teenager who made it to the semi-finals of The Voice Kids this year is set to have a very busy summer - reaching the final of another UK competition and performing in this year’s Fringe Festival.

Elyssa Tait, who made it to the final 16 acts of The Voice out of approximately 60,000 entrants, mesmerised the panel of celebrity judges, including coach Pixie Lott, who praised the youngster for her ability to deliver a performance with such emotional sincerity.

The 13-year-old is now one of seven UK finalists in this year’s Vocal Star competition where she will battle out against other unsigned artists on August 27- with the winner going on to claim a national title and gain global exposure.

Voice Kids star, Elyssa Tait has a busy summer ahead with the 13-year-old from Edinburgh appearing in several festival show

Elyssa told the Evening News: “'I’m so proud of myself for getting to the final of the Vocal Star competition and it’s great to be in another singing competition so soon after The Voice Kids.”

But the Barnton teenager has not settled for simply reaching the final stages of two national competitions – she has also secured a principal role in an upcoming theatre production alongside her own solo street performances – with the talented singer also hinting that this summer could see a reunion with fellow stars from The Voice.

Throughout August Elyssa will perform in Captivate Theatre’s production of School of Rock, where she’ll portray Tomika – a talented singer whose vocal gift goes unnoticed in the early stages of the story. Coincidentally, Tomika’s nickname is ‘Songbird’ - the very same nickname pop star Pixie Lott gave Elyssa in The Voice Kids UK.

Alongside the 12-day theatre run the Edinburgh starlet will perform at the Fringe with her singing coach, Lainey Hunter, and has applied for her own busking slot at this year’s Fringe Festival – but perhaps the most exciting news is a potential reunion of Team Pixie.

Team Pixie aka 'Scots and Scouse' have already busked on the TikTok stage in Liverpool and plan to perform together in the future. Elyssa (top left) Martha (top right) Tiara-Leigh (bottom left) Hayla (bottom right)

Elyssa told the Evening News: “Some of Team Pixie will be meeting up again in August for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and we plan to do some busking. At the end of August, all of us have been invited to Pixie Lott's Performing Arts Academy so we're all super excited about that.”

This year’s series of The Voice Kids saw the girls from Team Pixie develop a strong friendship despite all competing against each other for a place in the final. Walking out on stage holding hands for the battle stages, Elyssa, 13, Martha, 14, Tiara-Leigh, 13 and Hayla, 12, made an impression with their cover of ‘Climb Every Mountain’ prompting presenter, Emma Willis, to say ‘why don’t we just keep them all together?’

Elyssa said the support they showed for each other during rehearsals and their group performance helped keep pre-show nerves in check. Elyssa said: “I’ve never really sang in a group before, I have always sung by myself. But I actually felt more safe and more confident before I went on stage because I knew the other girls felt the exact same way.”

Judges were quick to see a potential girl group in the making with Ronan Keating describing performance was ‘epic’ and telling the girls he ‘felt like he was witnessing the beginning of something massive’ with Danny Jones adding ‘that would be a sick group you know.’

With Martha hailing from Aberdeen and Hayla and Tiara-Leigh both coming from Liverpool - the teenage quartet have become known as Scots and Scouse – a name created during the filming of the show.

Elyssa said: “We chat at least once a week and they’re coming up in August so we find a way of seeing each other, usually every few months. Hopefully this is the beginning of something for us.”