THE winner of the Sunday Herald competition to secure a slot at the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival has been revealed as rising country music star Lucy May.

The singer will open the main stage of the festival on Thursday, August 3 after beating hundreds of other up-and-coming bands and artists for the prize slot.

She was chosen by a panel from Belladrum and the Sunday Herald to open the 14th annual festival with the life-changing, 30-minute set.

More than 16,000 festivalgoers will attend the three-day event which takes place in the beautiful Highland surroundings of Belladrum Estate, near Beauly in Inverness-shire.

The Herald: Singer Lucy May has won the chance to open the main stage at Belladrum on Thursday 3rd August 2017

The independent festival, which was founded in 2004, has built a reputation for its eclectic line-ups, its offbeat non-musical entertainments as well as its all-ages approach.

It has won a Visit Scotland Thistle Award in 2009 and is a past winner of the Grassroots Festival Award at the UK Festival Awards, the festival industry’s ‘Oscars’.

This year it will welcome Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand, Twin Atlantic and the Pretenders as the headlining acts.

They will be joined by disco legends Sister Sledge and other musicians including KT Tunstall, First Aid Kit, Feeder, and Gallagher and Lyle.

The festival will also feature the brand new Temple of Dub Arena which will produce a constant flow of reggae, roots, dub and jungle tunes.

Lucy May, who comes from Sidcup, Kent, has already been making a name for herself in the country music scene. An alumni of the Brit School — which spawned the likes of Amy Winehouse, Jessie J and Adele — she has worked with multi-award winning songwriter and producer Jeff Cohen in Nashville.

She released her debut single Paper Heart in 2013, was praised by Sir Terry Wogan when it which made the Radio 2 playlist.

She has since opened for Michael Bolton on his recent UK tour and has released the latest single from her debut EP, a Jeff Cohen-penned song called Whirlwind.

Lucy May said she was "absolutely thrilled" to have won, adding: "I am really excited about this opportunity and cannot wait to get up on that stage."

A special recording of an acoustic number with the singer will also be included in BBC ALBA’s live coverage of the festival.

BBC ALBA will be on air live from Belladrum from 9:30pm on Thursday 3, and 10pm on Friday 4 and Saturday 5.