A NORTH-East diva is hoping she has not bitten off more than she can sing.

Opera singer and ambassador for Teesside, Suzannah Clarke, has been invited to sing the British National Anthem at the England versus Slovakia match which will be played at the Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough, next month.

It is part of Suzannah's trademark to always welcome visitors to Britain and the region in their own language. She has sung in Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Albanian and Norwegian.

She has enlisted the help of Slovakian students Janka Vincova, 23, and Martin Zapach, 21.

The pair are on an exchange, studying business at the university.

"I think she will learn it, but it will be hard with the pronunciation,'' said Janka.

Suzannah has caught Janka and Martin just in time, as they will be returning home to Kosice in two weeks.

"At least their alphabet is the same as ours; it's not cyrillic which is like looking at something in fractions,'' said Suzannah.

She used the Internet to print off what she could find of the Slovakian national anthem.

Suzannah's mother, Sheila, said: "Only the Slovakians will know if it's right or wrong.

"The first time she sang at Middlesbrough was frightening. When she sang in Albanian, I had hot flushes.''

. . . and if you want to sing along

The Czech words

Nad Tatrou sa blyska hromy divo biju

(repeat)

Zastavme ich bratia

(repeat)

Ved sa oni stratia

(repeat)

Slovaci oziju

(repeat)

The English translation

Lightning flashes over the Tatra, the thunder pounds wildly,

(repeat)

Let us pause, brothers, they will surely disappear, the Slovaks will revive.

(repeat)

This Slovakia of ours has been fast asleep until now,

(repeat)

But the thunder and lightning are encouraging it to come alive