‘X Factor’s no match for beloved Hibs’

But the 20-year-old Hibs fanatic from Prestonfield has revealed she does not get so excited about all talent contests and even turned down the chance to enter the X Factor.

She said: “I got my audition papers through for the X Factor but I didn’t want to stand and wait for six hours, so I went to the football instead.”

But she was much more enthusiastic about Edinburgh’s Got Talent, and was relieved to make it through to the finals after a last-minute surge in votes. The poll saw two acts tie for tenth place, so judges put them both through, but Erin was already ahead of the pack.

She said: “I was so delighted. I’d been tenth the whole time, then I went from tenth to seventh, and then eighth, and then I heard they were letting the 11th person in and I thought, ‘That was me, I’m the 11th’, then my mum phoned me and said, ‘You’re second!’.”

Erin is currently studying drama and performance at Queen Margaret University and sings regularly at hotels, bars, weddings and birthdays. But rather than setting her heart solely on a career on the stage, she is hoping to follow up her degree with a teaching course, having been inspired by the youngsters at the after-school club at St Francis and Niddrie Mill Primary, where she works.

She said: “It’s so much fun, it’s just the best job in the world. The kids at work are always on at me to sing – they started calling me Adele: ‘Sing for us, Adele’.”

She hopes her choice to cover one of the Cockney crooner’s biggest hits will win the hearts of the judges. She said: “In the past I’ve always sung songs that I really like, but sometimes they aren’t as well known and sometimes that’s let me down. With this it’s almost the opposite, I wonder if it’s too well known. But I love singing it so much that I thought I’d just wanted to do it.”

It’s not only the pupils who have given her support, her family, friends and boyfriend Chris are also right behind her.

She said: “I can’t even explain how supportive everybody’s been, even people that I don’t know very well. I wasn’t expecting the level of support I’ve been getting.”