A musical duo who made their names busking on the streets of Kent will sing for a place in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Dulcima Showan and Tom Twyman will take to the BBC stage in the hope of being chosen to represent the UK in the showpiece competition in Stockholm.

The pair – who formed Coco and the Butterfields in 2011 – will perform their track, When You Go, on Eurovision: You Decide on Friday night.

Dulcima said: “It’s both scary and exciting to be performing for such a big television audience but we are psyched up to give a great performance and we hope all our fans in Kent will vote for us.

“It was suggested that Tom wrote a song especially for Eurovision by our new publishers so we sent in a recording and have found ourselves chosen from hundreds to be in the final six which is amazing.”

In the past few years, the UK’s Eurovision entry has failed dismally, a trend Dulcima and Tom are hoping to reverse if they are chosen to be the representatives.

But this year there will be a new format for the finals with a judging panel making up 50% of the vote and the television audience the rest.

Classical violinist Dulcima, 23, first met songwriter Tom, 27, when she was singing at a pub open mic night in Westbere, near Canterbury.

“I heard her singing and she had a violin but she just held it – come to think of it, she didn’t play it once,” says Tom, who already had thoughts of forming a band.

“I’d been looking for a female singer who could also play the violin – based on that performance, it’s a good job it turned out that Dulcima actually can play it!”

The duo became the original members of CoCo and soon made a name for the band on the Kent busking circuit, performing to sold-out gigs across the county.

Talented seamstress Dulcima – who went to both of the Langton grammar schools in Canterbury – says she first busked in the city when she was 16.

She said: “I took it upon myself to go into the city centre on the bus on my own with my violin.

“I deliberately dressed a bit like an Irish fiddle player to create the right image and after a just few hours collected £60, which I thought was amazing.

“I dashed home to my parents and said ‘wow, look dad, I made £60’ – I was really chuffed but I think they were a bit sceptical.

“It seemed so much money back then but our record busking as Coco and the Butterfields is £700.”

The pair will be hoping for similar success when their track is aired live on BBC4 at 7.30pm on Friday night.