Schoolgirl pens new lyrics for Queen's We Are The Champions as ode to life during coronavirus crisis

Twelve-year-old Katelyn Whittle, of Jarrow, made a remix of the song after being challenged by South Tyneside Academy of Musical Performance (STAMP) during the lockdown.

Katelyn and her fellow STAMP members are being set different challenges each week while they cannot rehearse together as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

And the St Wilfrid’s RC College pupil put pen to paper to the tune of We Are The Champions by Queen, praising key workers, encouraging hand washing and spreading a message of positivity to others at a testing time.

Mum Yolande, 45, said her daughter's confidence has grown since she began attending sessions with the performing arts group.

She told the Gazette: “It’s a good way of keeping [the children] in contact and keeping STAMP up and running.

“Katelyn did it all herself and everyone was so surprised at how confident she sounded.

“It’s a nice uplifting song, it’s a song everyone knows, and it fit in with thanking the key workers.”

Katelyn’s new chorus for the song said: “We can defeat this my friends. We’ll fight this virus in the end

“We can defeat this, we can defeat this

“Don’t leave your houses, ‘coz we can defeat this in the end.”

The school girl told the Gazette that she aimed to cheer people up with her lyrics and that she hoped the song made people “feel a bit better”.

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