One day two friends are busking on the streets of London, the next they’re performing at the FA Cup Final, signing a six-figure record deal and performing in front of the Queen. A script for a movie you might think, but it actually happened to two young opera singers, Rebecca Knight and Karen England.

Fed up with the grind of touring, the two friends took themselves off to Covent Garden Piazza last spring where, along with other singers, jugglers, mime artists and assorted oddballs, they busked. As you do.

They’d turn up in their pitch dressed in jeans and denim jackets and sing along to tapes of music from operas such as Carmen, La Boheme and La Traviata. “We’d sit on the pavement, wearing four pairs of socks to keep out the cold, as we waited for our turn to busk,” recalls Karen. “And we’d joke to one another, ‘You never know, maybe a year down the line we’ll have a major record deal and be really famous.’ Then we’d laugh and spend our last 30p on a cup of coffee.”

To read more about Rebecca and Karen’s incredible leap to stardom, check out this week’s HELLO! magazine, on sale now.