FIVE seconds of song from Sabrina Ramikie and you can tell why she expects to be a star.

"In five years time I want to be able to reach all the people I want to reach," said the Leytonstone girl who lives with her mother in Kingsdown Road.

"Singing shouldn't be about fame or money. It should be about affecting people and moving them.

"I've always wanted to be a singer simply because music is my life and I can't imagine a life without it."

Sabrina, who at just 16 speaks like a sesoned pro, has already performed for the Prince of Wales during the Duke of Edinburgh Show. She is currently working on an album with a number of record producers and has also been accepted into Edmonton's new school for wannabe starlets Elite Arts.

She was one of more than 100 young people to compete for 20 places on a course whose patron is singer Gabrielle, and whose purpose is to further the careers of people interested in working in the entertainment business.

Sabrina has had a long-standing relationship with the new school's founder, Maxeen, who is a former singer and who has toured extensively with artists such as R Kelly and the late Notorious BIG.

Maxeen plucked Sabrina from the obscrurity of part-time singing lessons and has pushed her to the point where she is now compiling her own album and is being part-sponsored by members of record industry to attend Elite Arts.

Sabrina is particularly fond of R'n'B music and ballads. She performed one of Celine Dion's songs at the opening of the new school on December 3.

The course Sabrina will be taking costs £180 per half term. While the hunger of young people to enter the entertainment industry makes them easy targets for exploitation, Sabrina insists that the school is about much more than just making money for its directors.

"The people involved are really dedicated," she said. "I'm a confident singer but there's still much more that I need to learn, like how to move and act when I perform.

"The new course will help improve people's skills, but it will also get them contacts, without which it's impossible to make it in the entertainment business."

To contact Elite Arts, which is located at Faith House in Fore Street, Edmonton, call 8373 0373.