Nadine Coyle's new single

I've been listening to the snippet of Nadine Coyle's debut single, "Insatiable", which she's launching in Tesco in November. Not that she's launching it in her local Tesco, but rather her own record company has signed a deal with the supermarket chain to distribute it. It sounds great, the 0'40 secs that has been released so far. But I've always known she could sing.

I've known Nadine since she was about 7. Her dad, Niall ,always played the Dame in the local panto in Derry's St. Columb's Hall, and Nadine began her now famous career in the fairies line up.

Her big break came when she was about 9 or 10, the year we did "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Circa 1994/1995. I was Snow White. She was either Happy or Bashful.

One night I'm on stage lying in the glass coffin, having bit the poisoned apple. The Seven dwarfs are weeping at my demise, when I hear the whisper "Dopey's been sick...Dopey's been sick...." passed from dwarf to dwarf until Nadine whispers it to me. I half open one eye to see that indeed poor Dopey has been ill down the front of her costume and is looking kind of white and sweaty. But I can't do anything as Prince Charming hasn't kissed me back to life. In true panto tradition, the Prince was called Siobhan. When she got her cue, and bent down to deliver the "kiss" that would awaken me from the poison, I whispered "Dopey's been sick". And as I rose, to a gasp of joy from the audience, who by this stage were high on fizzy drinks and crisps, I managed to draw Dopey towards me and kind of hide the sick side of her costume behind my Snow White costume. Forget the smell of the greasepaint. It was a bit more pungent than that. But Nadine and I, Siobhan and the other Dwarfs sang our hearts out until the curtain came down and we reunited a shakey Dopey with her mummy.

I feel it's moments like this that shaped Nadine Coyle for greatness.

So when you see her next, just mention Snow White, St Columb's Hall, Derry and "Dopey's been sick" and see what she says.