Thanks to help from her Bermudian friends, an 18-year-old country music singer is now well on her way to stardom after she beat more than 23,000 other contestants in the US Network Nashville Star competition.

Erika Jo Heriges was the winner of the Nashville Star, the country music version of American Idol. Through a series of television episodes that aired in March, nine finalists were eliminated from the competition.

Although Miss Heriges is originally from a tiny town in Tennessee, she is well-known to Bermudians as she has been performing here since she was 15 years old. She even celebrated her 16th birthday on the Island.

The winner of the competition was selected by viewers who telephoned in their choice. Her Bermudian friends tied up phone lines in an effort to put in their vote and support her.

Some of those friends were Bermudians Brian and Barbara Willis who have two daughters a couple of years older than Miss Heriges.

?I met her about six years ago,? said Mr. Willis. ?I used to go to St. Louis, Missouri every year to watch powerboat racing. She was performing at a party I attended in St. Louis. She was about 11 or 12 at the time. She would sing the national anthem at the start of the race. I really liked her. I came home and told my wife Barbara that this little girl was fantastic. Every year I went back and she was getting better and better.?

For his 60th birthday, Mr. Willis asked his wife if she could bring Miss Heriges to Bermuda to perform for the Bermuda Diabetes Association. Mrs. Willis has been involved with the association for more than 20 years.

?We decided we?d call the Heriges,? said Mrs. Willis. ?They said ?we?d love to?. Then, a couple of days later they called back and said ?Where is Bermuda??. They had never travelled out of the United States. A couple of times during the show when they said she had performed internationally, they were talking about Bermuda.?

Miss Heriges did come to Bermuda to perform for Mr. Willis? birthday at the Somerset Country Squire, and was so well received she came back to play and Cup Match several times afterward.

?She comes as a team with her family,? said Mrs. Willis. ?Her father, Bo, is also a fantastic singer and her mother, Paige, does all the lights and the sound system. The younger daughter, Shelby Lynne, also sings more Madonna type music.?

When Miss Heriges was scheduled to appear on the Nashville Star at the beginning of March, a newspaper advertisement appeared asking her friends from Bermuda to call in their votes for her.

?You are allowed ten phone calls per phone,? said Mr. Willis. ?We were making calls from our cell phone, house phone and everything else. We were getting our friends to do the same. I think we might have made a difference. They never publicised how many votes that she got.?

Miss Heriges won a recording contract and a night to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Tennessee. She and the three other top finalists are now on tour across the United States. Her first professional CD will be launched in June.

?We are hoping to go and see them at Niagara Falls in July,? said Mr. Willis. ?There are a group of Bermudians going up there to see her.

?I got an email from her maybe two shows before the end, thanking all her friends for their help. Everyone has asked me if I will bring her back this year. The answer is I don?t know. She is married, she is under management, she is under record contract she can?t just get up and go. She did say that if she won she would come back and do a free concert for us. We are trying to get in touch with her, but I think that since they won the whole family have been on the road.?

Miss Heriges has been performing all her life. When she was only three months old, her mother entered her in her first beauty pageant.

?I think her mother saw the talent in this little girl when she was two or three years old,? said Mrs. Willis.

In addition to the Nashville star, Miss Heriges has also appeared on television programmes such as ?The Crook and Chase Show?, and ?Prime Time Country?. In 1999 she was a finalist in ?True Value Country Showdown?.