Thirteen-year-old Chloe Dupre was cheered to victory as she became the Sussex star of 2001.

Talented Chloe won the final of the Sussex Search for a Star talent competition and came away with a £400 first prize plus the offer of lucrative singing work.

Chloe was cheered on at the Brighton Trades and Labour Club, in Lewes Road, in the final on Friday, which saw 12 multi-talented performers battle it out.

Chloe now hopes her win will be a step towards appearing in London stage musicals or singing with a band.

After winning, she said: "It's a dream come true. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I can hardly believe I have won because there was so much talent on that stage."

Chloe uses Dupre as her stage name but is really schoolgirl Chloe Goffin, from Bishopstone.

She impressed the seven-strong panel of judges with her rendition of Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered from the musical Pal Joey and Judy Garland's Johnny One Note.

Chloe, a pupil at Seaford Head Comprehensive, said: "I don't want to be a pop singer. I'd like to sing with a big band or have a career in musical theatre. Barbara Streisand is one of my big heroines."

Chloe's mother, a mental health nurse in Seaford, said: "We will plough the money Chloe won back into her career and buy new costumes, have some publicity photographs taken and order new music backing tracks."

The runner-up in Sussex Search for a Star was a three-piece band from Eastbourne called Track Five. They scooped £200.

Joint third place (winning £100 each) went to 22-year-old Helen Ward-Jackson, from Willingdon, and 15-year-old Kerri Deaville-Bray, from Eastbourne.