A choirgirl is walking on air after netting a record deal which will see her managed by former chorister turned TV presenter Aled Jones.

Twelve-year-old York chorister Isabel Suckling was discovered in the choir at York Minster by Decca Records, part of Universal Music which has the likes of Lady Gaga, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Amy Winehouse and U2 on its books.

Britain’s favourite choirboy, Aled Jones, famously conquered the pop charts 25 years ago with Walking In The Air. He said: “On hearing Isabel’s voice I wanted to be involved in nurturing her special talent. She has such a great quality and I am very pleased to play a small part in enabling her to reach a wider audience.”

Label bosses are now styling her as The Choirgirl, ahead of the release of her debut album later this year.

Aled and Isabel will take on Simon Cowell in a bid for the Christmas number one with The Choirgirl’s first single, Michael Jackson’s You Are Not Alone, from which proceeds will go to Age UK.

Isabel, who lives in Fulford and attends the Minster School, was born in London but spent a number of years in Italy due to her father’s career as a wine expert. She returned to the UK when her parents, Catherine and James, separated.

They settled in York, where it was Isabel’s piano teacher Richard Shephard who suggested she should try for a choral scholarship at the Minster, even though she’d had no singing experience.

Happily, too, despite her parents’ separation, Isabel is still on good terms with both of them.

She said: “My mum hasn’t got remarried, and I see my dad loads. He visited just a week ago, and we went to Leeds and went to Wagamama, which is my favourite restaurant.”

“I’ve been teaching myself guitar since last year.

“I’d call it ‘songwriter guitar’, and I have actually written some songs. We went on a school trip to France and there was a talent show. I did one of the songs I’d written, but my friends really bugged me by going round singing it. I was going ‘shhh! Stop singing it! It’s terrible!’”

The album also features a choral recording of Imagine, to mark the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, and a new track written especially for Isabel by Gareth Malone, star of the BBC series The Choir, called Lux Aeterna.