GLASGOW singer Emma Brockett is just one song away from playing her biggest gig and a £10,000 prize.

The 24-year-old, from Maryhill, could be performing at London's O2 Arena after making it to the semi-final of the Live and Unsigned music contest.

If she makes it through the next leg of the competition, the North East and Scotland final in Newcastle on May 12, she will be in the grand final in London on July 14.

Glasgow five-piece rock group Act Natural Band had already been confirmed to perform at the Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre, Newcastle, next month.

Now Emma will join them and she said: "I'm surprised and excited."

While she might have impressed the judges in this contest – which is being filmed by Sky TV for a programme called Live and Unsigned: Uncut – she revealed she got the thumbs down from another reality show.

"I went for Britain's Got Talent, but didn't even get to the judges' stage," she said.

"They said I was not what they were looking for. I could have given up, but I thought I would give this a go."

Emma started performing about six years ago, and once entertained customers at the Auldhouse Arms in East Kilbride, where she worked as a waitress. She also does wedding gigs.

While she hopes to make music her career, she also has another plan – she is studying for a Ph.D in Neuroscience at Glasgow University.

She said: "Music has always been the career I would like, but it is not a steady income if you don't make it big, so I wanted to have something to back it up."

Emma writes songs and an album she recorded in her bedroom has been put on iTunes.

For the competition she has to sing two of her own songs plus a cover.

More than 40,000 acts entered the contest, which has a prize of £10,000 and the chance to take part in a festival tour to 15 events around the UK, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

The winner could also get to play at an international festival in Sweden, Italy or Latvia.

Judges for the event include Noddy Holder, from 1970s chart-topping group Slade, Annie Nightingale, Radio 1 DJ, and singer Shola Ama.

Chris Grayston, event director of Live and Unsigned, said: "When you consider the amount of entries we had this year it is a big deal to have got to this stage, and be just one performance away from fulfilling the dream of performing at the O2, one of the best music venues in the world."

sarah.swain@ eveningtimes.co.uk