Singer born in Wigan sings God Save The Queen at Ashes launch

Performing to surely her biggest ever audience, Shelley Davies sang God Save The Queen as the England and Australia teams lined up behind her at the Brisbane Cricket ground.

The 34-year-old emigrated from her childhood home in Springfield to Australia back in 1994 and has since forged a successful career as a musician.

Among the first to congratulate her after the curtain raiser were her parents Gary and Christine, who wrote: "One of our proudest moments as parents, seeing and hearing Shelley perform our anthem before the first Ashes test in Brisbane.

"You nailed it girl, so happy for you, it must have been a blast walking out to see the crowd.

"Savour every moment love, you work hard and deserve it. I reckon you might have had some supporters watching from above too."

Before the performance, Shelley said: "It's been a privilege to sing the Aussie anthem many times throughout my career: I this country and I living here.

"However, you can take the girl out of Wigan, but you can't take Wigan out of the girl!

"So this time around I am singing God Save The Queen to honour my homeland and I really hope I do all my nearest and dearest proud

"I feel quite emotional about this! It's definitely a special one for me."

Sadly for England the stirring rendition didn't galvanise the team into heroics. They were skittled out for just 147 before the weather intervened, opener Rory Burns seeing his stumps uprooted with the first ball of the match.

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