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A 22-year-old from Gloucester who won a Chinese TV talent competition is to sing at the FA Cup final later.
Mary-Jess Leaverland will perform the traditional Abide with Me in front of a sold-out crowd of almost 70,000 people at Wembley Stadium.
Despite practising every day, she said it was not something "you can ever really feel truly prepared for".
Abide with Me has been performed at every FA Cup final since Arsenal v Cardiff City in 1927.
"It's the biggest live audience I've ever had and I feel honoured to be able to sing in a place like that," she said. "But I'm sure I'll be nervous."
The former Gloucester Cathedral Youth Choir singer was studying Mandarin at Nanjing University in China when she entered and won a live televised singing competition.
'Football mad'
"It was very intimidating to be in China doing something as big as that," she said.
"I couldn't quite understand what people were saying to me but it was a great thing to do and ended up leading to amazing things."
Miss Leaverland has since signed a record deal with Universal but still cannot believe she was selected by The Football Association.
"I know a little bit about football - probably not as much as I should do," she said.
"But I come from a football mad family and they're all really excited."
BBC
