Kersha Bailey owns the stage at the Hackney Weekend festival

A Tottenham singer is celebrating being playlisted on national radio after a spellbinding performance at Radio One’s Hackney Weekend festival.

Kersha Bailey owns the stage at the Hackney Weekend festival

Kersha Bailey’s dynamic brand of acoustic jazz and indie soul created such a stir at the sell-out bash in Hackney Marshes on Sunday that the following day her delicious vocals on new track Beyond the Stars started drifting across the Radio 1Xtra airwaves.

The 24-year-old self-taught guitarist from Northumberland Park said: “It was amazing to be up there on stage in front of all those people and to get my music out there to such a big audience.

“So many thgoughts were running through my head. It was a combination of nerves, of me thinking ‘I cannot believe this is happening’ and trying to tell myself not to think about it too much and just enjoy being up there with my band.

“It’s an amazing feeling and then to hear my track on the radio is like a dream come true.”

Kersha, whose influences include Jill Scott, Prince, Coldplay and the Foo Fighters, is a regular at famous London venues such as The Vortex, Ronnie Scott’s and The Jazz Cafe.

She is already lined up to show off her impressive vocal runs and ad-libs play at BT London Live series to celebrate the Olympics, and is hoping to play the main summer music festivals. And back home in Tottenham her family are nearly as excited as her.

“When i’m not away with the music I’m still based at my mum’s and she loves music,” said Kersha. “My 14-year-old brother is an aspiring footballer and my 12-year-old sister is more of an artist but they are all really buzzing for me. We’ve even had some people knocking on my mum’s door,

“I work part-time as a receptionist but music is what I love. I want to be able perform and travel and it’s amazing that it seems like it’s actually happening now.”