A teenage girl with ambitions to become a global singer superstar has released a single to raise money for homeless people in Merton this Christmas.

Gilska Weerakkody, 14, is a semi-finalist in the UK Songwriting Contest (UKSC) judged by superstar music moguls including Paul McCartney's and Mariah Carey's producer Dr Richard Niles.

The ambitious teen, who is a pupil at the Arts Education Day School in Chiswick, has now released one of her competition entries, Black Hole, for 99p to raise money for homeless charity SPEAR.

After hearing about the charity through a fundraising event at school, she decided to use her singing talent to boost donations for the charity, which supports nine young people at its hostel in Wimbledon.

The Merton Park teenager said: "I started composing some classical pieces when I was eight or nine and then after that when I was about 11 I wrote a song about my dog that died and it was quite therapeutic and I love doing it.

"I wrote Black Hole because I have a lot of friends who are teenagers and go through quite a lot and I wanted to write it for teenagers that go through the same thing."

She said she is still figuring out what kind of style best suits her voice, but said she mostly likes pop music and a bit of jazz.

She said: "I listen to and love all kinds of artists out there. I really like Beyonce because she's literally perfection. I also look up to people like Labyrinth.

"He's quite a cool artist because with his last song he's made his whole track really dry. He hasn't used any effects and I think it really gets the emotion out of his song."

Gilska will find out if she has reached the finals of the UKSC in the New Year. You can listen to her entries, Black Hole and Attentions, on iTunes, Youtube and Myspace.

Heidi Shrimpton, SPEAR's head of fundraising, said: "It is wonderful that Gilska wants to donate her royalties from her song to SPEAR to help other young people who are suffering from homelessness."

SPEAR was founded in 1987 following the death of two people sleeping rough on a Richmond riverbank.

Today it works with homeless young people and adults across south west London to help them find accommodation and support them to address mental health, addiction, relationship and employment problems.

SPEAR's Wimbledon hostel, which the charity plans to double in size, provides accommodation, education and independent-living support for homeless young people.

To download Gilska's single and support SPEAR, visit amazon.co.uk.

To support Gilska in the songwriting contest, visit the UKSC community and leave a comment for Gilska Weerakkody.