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\nby NINA MYSKOW<\/p>\n\n
* THE WELSH SCHOOLGIRL SONGBIRD<\/p>\n
* STAR OF ITV PRIMETIME SHOW \u2018THIS TIME NEXT YEAR\u2019<\/p>\n
* SIGNED TO DECCA AT 15 YEARS-OLD<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A year ago, Welsh schoolgirl Elan made a pledge to Davina McCall on \u2018This Time Next Year\u2019, ITV\u2019s life-transforming programme on which Davina asks, \u201cBy this time next year what do you want to achieve?\u201d Elan, who was then just 14, confessed her dream to Davina: \u201cI want to make an album.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said it was my dream,\u201d Elan says. \u201cBut to be honest, I couldn\u2019t even begin to imagine how I could do something like that. In fact it was so far beyond my wildest dreams I didn\u2019t even dare think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charming, modest and natural, Elan (a classic Welsh name pronounced \u2018El-Ann\u2019) had been competing since the age of four in the traditional Eisteddfod singing contests \u2013 a major festival series in Wales, celebrating music and culture and reaching over 150,000 people each year \u2013 ranging from local to county and then national level. It\u2019s considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Elan was a veteran of the competition stage: \u201cI\u2019ve always loved music and singing. There\u2019s a video of me aged two playing a toy keyboard and singing, and when I was in Nursery I saw older friends competing and I thought, \u2018I want to be like them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Pure, fresh and authentic, her beautiful voice \u2013 as easy as breathing \u2013 soars so effortlessly that, even in a country renowned for its singing, she is a stand-out.<\/p>\n
And as viewers saw when \u2018This Time Next Year\u2019 was screened in May, she did indeed realise her dream. In the whirlwind year which has passed since the original filming when she made her pledge to Davina, she has been signed by Decca and has spent the months since recording tracks for her new album. And all the while studying for her GCSE\u2019s!<\/p>\n
Such is the format of the show, one of the hardest parts for Elan was keeping the secret of her exciting journey for a whole year: \u201cLuckily I could discuss it and share it with my family and close friends, and I\u2019ve never been one to brag about what I do, but a year is a long time!\u201d<\/p>\n
Viewers saw Elan make her pledge and leave through the \u2018This Time\u2019 door in the studio to embark on her year-long challenge. But thanks to the \u201ctime travel\u201d format of the show, what viewers saw moments later was Elan emerging through the \u2018Next Year\u2019 door in the studio to tell Davina about the intervening year which saw her go from schoolgirl to recording star.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so exciting for me to film that,\u201d she says, \u201c Davina was so lovely, and made it very easy, because it was all new to me \u2013 having my hair and make-up done professionally, I don\u2019t usually wear much make-up! I wore a new red dress which she said she liked. But of course the most important and wonderful thing is that I was signed, and I\u2019ve made an album which I love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elan, who lives in north Wales near Wrexham with her parents Bethan and Dave Parry, and younger sister Calan, has recorded an album filled with songs that mean a lot to her: \u201cMusically it\u2019s a cross-over of folky songs and classic pop,\u201d she says. She speaks Welsh at home, and songs on the album are in both Welsh and English.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne is my favourites is Anfonaf Angel<\/em>. Obviously very few people have heard my recording, because of having to keep things secret, but I played it to my grandmother and she cried. It was a song that was played at my grandfather\u2019s funeral. Guardian Angel, the English version, is also on the album.\u201d<\/p>\n Elan, who is taking GCSE\u2019s in History, Art and PE, wants to go to university. She plays the piano (\u201cI love to play classical pieces, anything I can find\u201d), the clarinet, and has a drum kit at home (\u201cyes, my parents have earplugs!\u201d) She also plays the harp: \u201cAlthough not so much, I don\u2019t have lessons any more because I just can\u2019t fit them in.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not surprising! She also loves sport, plays netball for the county and runs, and made the Welsh finals of Cross Country. And she would surf every day if she could.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I could be another creature it would be a mermaid, which is silly because they don\u2019t exist! But I love the beach and the sea so much.\u201d<\/p>\n Her first love, of course, is singing: \u201cThis is such an exciting time for me, and I realise how fortunate I\u2019ve been. How did all this happen to me? But I\u2019m just grateful that it has.\u201d<\/p>\n