Meet the Poppy Girls: Five youngsters whose fathers have all served in the Armed Forces aim for the Top Ten with charity single

  1. •Megan Adams, 10, Florence Ransom, 10, Alice Milburn, 13, Bethany Davey, 15, and Charlotte Mellor, 17 beat 1000 hopefuls to make it into the group

  2. •Their single, The Call (No Need To Say Goodbye) will raise £80m for military

  3. •It is written by singer Regina Spektor for general release on November 10

  4. •They will perform for the Queen at the Royal Albert Hall next month

By Ian Drury

PUBLISHED: 00:26, 23 October 2013 | UPDATED: 01:29, 23 October 2013

They are aiming to follow in the footsteps of the Spice Girls, Girls Aloud and Little Mix by setting the music charts alight.

But this is a girlband with a difference - for all five members are schoolgirls who have fathers who have risked their lives in the Armed Forces.

The group - called the Poppy Girls - was formed after an X Factor-style talent competition for the children of military families run by the Royal British Legion.

The singers - Megan Adams, 10, Florence Ransom, 10, Alice Milburn, 13, Bethany Davey, 15, and Charlotte Mellor, 17 - battled their way past more than 1,000 other hopefuls to make it into the group.



Poppy Girls: Megan Adams, 10, Charlotte Mellor, 17, Alice Milburn, 13, Florence Ransom, 10, and Bethany Davey, 15, sing a 'hauntingly beautiful' track for this year's remembrance day. The song is by singer Regina Spektor


Now they are hoping to wow an army of fans and crash into the Top Ten with the official 2013 Poppy Appeal single.

The song, The Call (No Need To Say Goodbye), will help raise £80million a year to support military personnel and their families.


Written by acclaimed American singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, the lyrics are a poignant message of hope for those who will not see their loved ones for weeks or months.

The Poppy Girls will perform the single in front of the Queen at the Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, November 9. The song will then be released the following day.

 


British Legion makes Poppy Appeal song for Remembrance Day






The song: The Call (No Need To Say Goodbye) will help raise £80million a year to support military personnel




The girls were selected after an exhaustive global search for talent among Forces families, overseen by executives at Decca Records..

Children who had a parent or sibling serving in the UK or overseas were allowed to enter the contest.

More than 1,000 children from places as far away as the Falkland Islands and Kuwait, took part. Some had experienced the heartbreak of having loved ones killed or injured on operations in Iraq or Afghanistan.













Praise: Dickon Stainer, president of Decca Records, praised the girls' 'hard work, discipline and dedication'. (Clockwise from top left) Florence, Bethany, Megan, Alice, and Charlotte are excited to sing for the Queen



Proud: Megan (right) who first sang this year, with her family and father Lieutenant Commander William Adams



Navy daughter: Alice Milburn, 13, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, with her father Captain Phillip Milburn this year

The competitors were whittled down to 60 for the 'live' auditions and reduced again to 11 for the final. They went into the studio for a gruelling selection process which led to the creation of the Poppy Girls.

Megan, from Stirling, Scotland, began singing lessons just a year ago. Her father, Lieutenant Commander William Adams, is on a six-month deployment in the Indian Ocean.

Florence, from Peterfield, Hampshire, whose father Lieutenant Ben Ransom, serves in the Navy is emulating her mother, who enjoyed phenomenal success as part of the Military Wives Choir, which reached Number One with the song Wherever You Are at Christmas 2011.



Tough life: Bethany, 15, with father Lance Corporal Dean Davy who has been deployed to numerous war zones



Florence, 10, is pictured here with her father Lieutenant Ransom and mother, who is in the Military Wives Choir



Charlotte Mellor, 17, has lived eight different places with her father, Wing Commander (Padre) Paul Mellor

Alice, from Portsmouth, Hampshire, has a father, Captain Philip Milburn, in the Navy, while Bethany, from Dartford, Kent, was separated from her dad Dean while he was deployed in warzones with the 9th/12th Royal Lancers.

Charlotte, at boarding school in Cambridge, has lived in eight different places in her short life as her father Wing Commander Paul Mellor is a padre in the RAF who recently returned from a tour-of-duty in the Gulf.

Charles Byrne, the Royal British Legion's head of fundraising, said: 'This is a hauntingly beautiful track sung by a group of girls who know what it means to have family members constantly placed in harm's way.


Perform: The girls will perform their single for the Queen on November 9 - the day before it is released in shops







They were formed by an X Factor-style contest for children of military families run by the Royal British Legion

'The major theme of this year's Poppy Appeal is around families. There is no more powerful way of reflecting that than through the voices of these exceptionally talented young people.'

Dickon Stainer, president of Decca Records, praised the girls' 'hard work, discipline and dedication'.

He said: 'When you hear these young kids talk about their families and the sacrifices they make growing up in a Forces family, you do wonder how such young shoulders can carry the burden of the constant stress and anxiety.'

  1. •The Poppy Girls single The Call (No Need To Say Goodbye) can be pre-ordered now on iTunes and goes on general sale on Remembrance Sunday.