SAM Bailey may never have performed in York until this weekend, but The X Factor 2013 winner can well remember a long-gone show she played in North Yorkshire.

"It was at Flamingo Land years and years ago, the Tony Carnegie Show. It was all sorts," recalls Sam, who makes her York Barbican debut on Saturday. "There was an impersonation act, a guy dressed as a woman, and there was me!. Then I was up there again last year to do a big pop concert. I love the scary rides there; I love the upside-down ones."

After releasing her second album, Sing My Heart Out, last year, the 39-year-old Bexley singer, musical actress, pantomime star and former prison officer is undertaking a 32-date nationwide tour under the same title. "Basically the whole tour is me singing my heart out, doing songs from the albums, songs that have been sung by some amazing singers," says Sam.

Joining her on Saturday's bill will be Nikki Loy, a singer-songwriter who lives in a camper van, promoting her third album, Pivotal, and 11-year-old Jessica May Frost, from Leeds, who has battled with childhood illness but acquired confidence through singing.

"I've chosen acts from all around the country for the tour, choosing 'everyday people' who need a step-up, who've sent in videos," says Sam. "Jessica was ten in her video she sent in; she has an amazing voice and I just wanted to give her a platform."

The emphasis will be on the singing in Sam's show. "There'll be a couple of costume changes, but I don't want too much of a distraction, none of that coming on on stilts, in a harness; that's not my bag," she says. "I just want to do a really good show, with everyone singing along and having a good time. It's all about the songs."

Just as it was when she sang on cruise ships and in clubs before she found The X Factor and left behind prison-officer duties at HM Prison Gartree for solo albums and tours and playing Mama Morton in Chicago and Fairy Bowbells in pantomime at Aylesbury. "They wanted me to play 'evil'," says Sam. "But I said, 'No, I'm too nice'." So nice, she then played Queen of the Flower Fairies in Leicester last Christmas, and "hopefully I'll do another panto this year too".

Sam Bailey, Sing My Heart Out Tour, York Barbican, Saturday, March 25, 7.30pm. Tickets update: still available on 0844 854 2757 or at yorkbarbican.co.uk. Bailey's chosen charity for fund-raising on the tour is the Rainbows Children’s Hospice.