A SINGER songwriter from Erith is celebrating getting to the next round of a national singing competition.

Singing his self-penned song Let Me Take You Home, Wayne Jacobs sailed through the first stage of Open Mic UK and is battling to perform for a place in the Grand Final at The O2.

He attended the first audition show in Basildon on August 7 and will perform again live in the next stage of the regional finals on September 18.

As well as more than £50,000 worth of prizes up for grabs along the way, the winning act will bag a recording and management contract.

Wayne said: "I was extremely lucky to go through to the regional finals out of 10,000 singers.

"My song was about a beautiful country girl I meet at a bar in Nashville. I asked if I could sing her a cover of a Johnny Cash song or sing her one of my own, so I sang her a song I wrote that night.

"Let Me Take You Home won the Directors Award given by Paramount Group in Nashville, Tennessee, last year and I made a professional demo to pitch to the music industry."

For more information on the contest, visit openmicuk.co.uk