A band of sultry sirens are hoping to take the pop charts by storm and prove their singing talent can help them rise to the top.

The girl group Plus are five singers sized between 16 and 18 who are determined to prove that big is beautiful.

Plus member Kate Newnes, 27, who lives in Lyttelton Road, Hampstead Garden Suburb is expecting the public to respond well to their image.

She said: "We are hoping people will support us and see us as attractive women who can actually sing," said Miss Newnes, who got through two auditions last year and beat hundreds of other women to make the band.

"When the whole oh look they're fat' thing dies down, people will realise there's a decent pop band underneath that."

The group's first single, a re-make of Inner City's Eighties hit Big Fun, was released for download on Monday.

The group's publicist, Kizzi Nkwocha, believes the music industry is obsessed with the idea that singers have to be thin to be marketable - despite the average British woman being a size 16.

"We think that's wrong and, after Big Fun hits the top of the charts, the music industry will have to admit they're wrong," he said.

"It will be the song that opens the door to thousands of performers who were turned away in the past because of their size."