Blind singer to save Queen from Pistols

A blind singer who performed for the Queen at Buckingham Palace is to take on the Sex Pistols in the race to be No 1 in the charts for the Diamond Jubilee.

Lissa Hermans, 30, is to release her version of God Save The Queen next month, going head to head with the less respectful song of the same name by the Pistols that has been reissued as a protest against jubilee celebrations.

Lissa, a member of the Chickenshed theatre company since the age of seven, gave a private performance for the Queen last month, after singing the National Anthem at a reception marking the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens. Lissa said: “It was a wonderful experience and a privilege to perform for the Queen. I am delighted the song will be released as a single.”

The proceeds from Lissa’s single will go to Chickenshed. Her agent Jonathan Shalit said it was “distasteful” for Universal Records to promote the Sex Pistols single when it was also responsible for a jubilee song being written by Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

He said: “I’m frankly staggered.”