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Warwickshire’s Emma Wilkinson first came to the public’s attention in 2001 when her rendition of Dusty Springfield’s ‘Son Of A Preacher Man’ won the British TV talent show Stars In Their Eyes’ grand final with a landslide voter victory from the show’s 20 million viewers. The following year at age 23, Emma released her own album featuring a mixture of covers and originals, backed by a variety of session players including Dusty’s guitarist Stuart Taylor, London mod-soul group The Gene Drayton Unit, and a rock orchestra called The Flowers Of Hell who’s leader Greg Jarvis served as her producer and manager.
Following the album’s release, Emma toured up and down the UK performing sometimes as herself and sometimes as Dusty - singing everywhere from London’s 100 Club, to mod weekenders, to the gay clubs of Northern Scotland, and for Dusty’s friends and biggest fans at Dusty Day. Her rendition of ‘House Of The Rising Sun’ hit #1 for six weeks on Europe’s biggest download chart at the time and her self-penned ‘Gonna Stop (Wastin’ My Time)’ was pressed up on 275,000 CDs included with a woman’s magazine. She has since returned to a quiet life as a teacher and a mother.
