The Voice UK winners Hunni 'dream big' with killer debut single and name change after ITV win

They made history on The Voice UK in December, when, as Jen & Liv they became the first group to ever win the show and now, after trying to keep their victory a secret for nearly a year and changing their name, Hunni are ready to unleash their debut single on the world and are aiming high and dreaming big.

Known to shoppers in Newcastle city centre for busking on Northumberland Street, Hunni - County Durham's Liv and Whitley Bay's Jen, found themselves on Team Will.I.Am after their first audition for The Voice sent chairs spinning and, as they say, the rest is history. After making it all the way to the grand final, they topped the audience vote when it mattered most and shot straight up the iTunes chart with their cover of I'm Every Woman.

While the final aired after Christmas, the reality was that it was filmed months and months earlier, meaning that as well as having to sit on their life changing win and record deal with Universal, Hunni also had plenty of time to work on music, not least their instantly catchy and effortlessly edgy debut cut Heartbeat, which is released on Friday, April 19.

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Chatting to ChronicleLive days ahead of its release, the girls said they knew as soon as they recorded the track, it was 'the one', with Liv explaining: "I got butterflies from it. When we left the studio that day we were like 'this is the one' and we were singing it on the Tube. We have made quite a few other songs since then, but we knew Heartbeat had to be the single."

Having impressed Will.I.Am and attracted plenty of admirers for their vocals, energy and attitude, Hunni have every right to be hoping for big things and Jen isn't shying away from being ambitious when it comes to the single and what's to come after that. "It's a song that has so much energy," she enthused.

"We wanted to make it very much a British sound, but also that it could reach an international audience. I mean, we'd love to go global, why not?!"

While being tipped for great things and their diary becoming fuller and fuller for the rest of the year, with a BBC Introducing headline gig in Newcastle on April 27 and Northern Pride in the City and Mouth of the Tyne in the next few months, Hunni haven't turned their back on busking. And, having played in other cities across the UK over the last few weeks, they will be back on home turf on single release days. So keep an eye out on Northumberland Street on Friday!

*Heartbeat will be available from Spotify, iTunes and Apple Music.