Students across Newcastle will be cheering on their English teacher as she appears on a hit dating and singing show this weekend.
Vicki Seymour is set to appear on ITV's Romeo and Duet at 7pm on Saturday (28 May) - a much talked about show which combines her natural talent of singing and entertaining with blind dating.
The 39-year-old was invited to participate by ITV as a picker rather than a performer, and was presented with the task of finding a potential soulmate through voice alone.
Read more: Dancing on Ice's Oti Mabuse lands another ITV job ahead of series finale
However, it wasn't all plain sailing for the mother of two from Consett, who had serious reservations about appearing on the show to begin with.
Speaking to Chronicle Live, she said: "I was actually tagged in a Facebook post by a friend who said I would be perfect for it. They were asking for North East single singers and I just put a laughing emoji on it.
"Then I clicked a link to log into the show and I thought 'nah, it's a dating show and the kids at school will absolutely annihilate me - there's no way'. But then before I'd even stopped looking at it, Gareth from ITV had rang and told me it was light hearted family fun, no one's going to look stupid and that I'll have a brilliant time.
"Then my parents and my sister basically said 'you're an idiot if you don't, you're gonna sing on ITV Vicki. Get on and do your best' so I did."
And although she felt a little 'peer pressured' into participating by family and friends, she had a fantastic time at the ITV studios, and loved the experience on the whole.
She added: "Truthfully I was so nervous, and I was pretty much peer pressured into it if I'm honest. Then once I did get there, and meeting everybody who worked on the show and all the other contestants - everybody was so friendly and they couldn't do enough for you. It was an experience that I will never ever forget and I definitely now think that I made the right decision one hundred percent.
"It's one of those things, like how often do you get asked to sing on ITV? That will never ever come up again, I definitely feel like it's an experience I will never ever forget."
Vicki is an avid entertainer and singer herself, who performs regularly at private shows and functions with her sister Steph under the name 'The Seymour Sisters'. A fan of rock music herself with a self-admitted husky voice, she said that she channelled her own personal preferences into her final decision on who to pick on the show itself.
She added: "I like a man's man basically, so I was looking for someone who sang the style of song that I sing which is rock. I sing more male songs than female songs to be honest, so I was waiting for that song that just connected with me. That's what I ended up going for."
A Head of Department at Studio West in West Denton, Vicki spilled the beans to her ever engaging year 11 students who are always asking if she has any gigs on. They were delighted to find out the news, and many have promised to be tuning into ITV this Saturday to watch her on air.
Vicki said: "It was during the kind of process of talking it through with my family we'd been talking about one of my gigs at the weekend. They all follow me, they follow us on Tik Tok and they follow us on Facebook and they were like 'Miss have you got any gigs this weekend?' and I was like 'You'll never guess what I've been asked to do'.
"So I was talking to them about it and they said 'please do it, please do it Miss' so I said 'alright go on then, you've talked me into it' so they know.
"I think I actually mention them on the show, I think I said 'hi year 11' or something like that."
And while her students, family and friends will all no doubt be roaring in anticipation - Vicki will oddly enough be unable to speak while the show airs, as she is undergoing surgery on her vocal chords. Vicki also spoke about how upset she is that she will have to wave goodbye to her talent temporarily, while others enjoy it one last time on national television.
She continued: "We had shows booked up until two years down the line - we've had to cancel a lot of them recently though as I'm having surgery on my vocal chords. When the show comes out on Saturday I'll be sat watching it mute, I won't be able to talk never mind sing.
"It's going to be really, really hard watching it and not being able to react with my family.
"The day I was recording for the show I had issues with my voice where I felt husky. I like the husky and I like a rock voice but I've really struggled for a while with the longevity to my voice. I was having issues with it last year, I went for investigations and they told me that I was holding all my anxiety in my vocal chords.
"Shock I'm awkward most people carry it in their shoulders where as I carry it in my vocal chords. I'd had speech therapy and I'd had loads of work and then things were getting better.
"I started taking gigs on, then about 3 months ago it all started again and it was getting worse. They sent me to the specialists at the Freeman who thought it was nodules, but the surgeon wanted to see it for herself.
"She looked last week and said that it doesn't look like nodules and that one side look thicker than the other side so they're going to operate this week. It's all happened very, very fast."
Romeo and Duet airs on Saturday at 7pm, and you can catch it on ITV or the ITV hub on catch-up.
Read next:
