Singers of some note

Monday, January 17, 2005 5:00

Rebecca Nelson and mark Vercoe have reason to smile.

Christchurch duo Rebecca Nelson and Mark Vercoe, pictured left, sung their way to success last week at the Caroline Bay Carnival talent quest.

Nelson, 16, and Vercoe, 19, of Bishopdale won the senior section of the competition with their classical renditions of Seeing Is Believing and Time To Say Goodbye.

The duo have been singing together for two years and were pleased with their success after finishing second in the competition last year.

Their classically trained voices proved to be popular with the audience who were used to the country and western acts that dominate the competition.

"I was really stoked. It was really good because I think all the people wanted us to win.

"We went there last year and we sang and a lot of people who saw us came to watch us again. I think it's because we were different," she said.

Nelson began singing four years ago as part of performing ballet and was paired with Vercoe in 2003 to help her develop more confidence on stage.

Vercoe won the intermediate section of the Golden Guitar awards in 2002 and was pleased to take up the challenge of a duet. "It's more comfortable because you have someone else standing on stage but it's quite hard because you can't let the other person down," Nelson said.

The duo won the talent quest at Northlands Mall in 2003 and has made it into the finals in a number of competitions.

The duo practise together twice a week but sang every day leading up to the Caroline Bay Carnival talent quest.

While Nelson is also a competent jazz dancer and has performed at the ASB Starry Nights, she wants to make a career out of singing.

"I just liked it so much and ever since then I've wanted to be a famous singer," she said.

She looks up to British singer Charlotte Church and plans to work for two years after finishing her final year at Burnside High School before travelling to the UK to study music.

She plans to spend her share of the $1500 talent quest prize money on a holiday in Australia at the end of the year.