George Ezra might be looking over his shoulder after the debut single from a West Cumbrian singer-songwriter rocketed up the iTunes charts.

Luke Yates, originally from Whitehaven, launched his first song Beautiful Mess ahead of an EP release next year and the track has been a smash hit, hitting the top 10 of the iTunes singer-songwriter chart among illustrious company like Ezra.

He said: “It’s a bit of a singer-songwriter cliché to write about heartbreak but it’s also commonly covered so it was a bigger challenge to write a song that’s just happy, vibrant and colourful.

“I found myself, the day before pressing the big red button to release, feeling terrified and exhilarated because as a singer-songwriter it’s kind of my job to say what I think about the world, experience life and write about it poetically. This is a very honest, real song.

“Right before pressing go there’s definitely a feeling of ‘What if people don’t like it?’

“It’s easy to get into the charts from what I’ve heard but it’s harder to stay there and it actually stayed in the top 10 for three days. I’ve been overwhelmed and incredibly grateful for the support I’ve had.”

Luke travelled to Prague to record the EP, with the next single due to come out in January. The studio time was paid for with prize money he won on the game show Tipping Point.

Listen to the track here.