Teenager selected for Marines singing role

Dani Kemp, 18, has been selected for the prestigious role, which could see her take centre stage at the world-famous Royal Albert Hall and perform in front of the Queen.

The teenager auditioned in April before embarking on an intensive three-month training period at the Commando Training Centre, at Lympstone, in Devon.

She dug deep to come through the challenging process and celebrated the achievement at her passing-out parade last Thursday.

Dani has now been drafted to the Royal Marines School of Music, in Portsmouth, for specialist qualification study on voice and clarinet for two years and eight months.

Dani, who loves to sing musical theatre and choral music, is delighted to have been selected as the first female vocalist.

She said: “It is amazing. I have always wanted to be a professional vocalist and to be able to represent the Royal Marines Band Service is brilliant.

“Most of my family are in the military, so to be able to do music and military is fantastic.”

She is looking forward to focussing on the music after the arduous training at Lympstone.

Dani said: “The horrible bit is over. The phase one training in Devon was the most challenging thing I have done, with things like amphibious training, physical fitness and spending time out in the field.”

The Royal Marines Band Service is the musical wing of the Royal Navy and consists of six bands. Royal Marines musicians and buglers are fully trained and operational military personnel and usually perform support duties such as being medics or drivers.