The Voice hopefuls sing their hearts out in Wolverhampton auditions
Budding musicians did their best to impress talent spotters at auditions held for singing contest The Voice.
With dreams of stardom they descended on the Royal London pub in the heart of Wolverhampton for an open mic night to which ITV had sent two scouts.
A total of 12 acts performed at the popular student haunt with eight asked to attend the next stage of auditions in Birmingham.
Among them was 26-year-old American Cody Pennington who was one of the first on the mic and was brave enough to perform an original song.
He came to live in the UK after meeting his partner, Charlotte Williams, while working on a cruise ship. He is now studying law at the University of Wolverhampton.
He said: "I was performing acoustic gigs on the cruise ship and now I am studying law while still playing. My style is pop-folk with a little bit of RnB in there too.
"I actually did this a couple of years ago and made it through but I couldn't go on TV because I didn't have a work visa. Now I have a student visa which would allow me to appear should I reach that stage again."
Also trying to make it through was 25-year-old Romanian Alina Amon who lives in Dudley having moved to the Black Country to study at the University of Wolverhampton.
She was among those asked to attend a further audition in Birmingham.
She said: "My mother sung back in Romania and I was brought up in a very artistic family. From an early age I was taught the guitar.
"I like the format of The Voice and I have followed the show from the start as we also had it in Romania.
"One of my friends got to the first televised audition and that was a great experience for him so I said I would try it as well."
Should they continue to progress they will make it to the televised stages of the competition and follow in the footsteps of Wolverhampton's Megan Reece who made it through to the battle rounds of the 2016 series.
The Voice has previously been broadcast by the BBC but is now shown on ITV who acquired the rights.
The most recent judges' line-up featured The Black Eyed Peas's will.i.am, Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale and Welsh singing legend Tom Jones.
Event organiser, Bash Chamberlain, said: "I think it is a bit more credible for musicians than other talent shows as it is not such an image-driven show.
"It goes by its name in that sense and it is more about the voice.
"A know a lot of people were put off by the idea initially and they needed a bit of encouraging to get behind it.
"But Megan Reece doing so well and being from Wolverhampton did inspire a lot of people from this area to take part this time around."
