POP chart-topper Lisa Stansfield will today turn on the Christmas lights at the MetroCentre.
The Rochdale-born singer, the granddaughter of Gracie Fields, will flip the switch at the Gateshead centre, which has regained its distinction as the continent's biggest shopping venue following the opening of an extension.
The ceremony will take place at 6pm in Exhibition Square, next to Woolworths, and will also feature the centre's children's characters, the MetroGnomes.
The centre has invested in a new set of lights that it hopes will be a big hit with the thousands of shoppers in the run-up to the festive season.
Stansfield hit the top of the charts in 1989 with All Around the World, produced by pop moguls Stock, Aitken and Waterman and enjoyed further single success in the early 1990s.
Her first greatest hits album Biography was number three in the UK album charts and she recently released a new studio album, The Moment.
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