SINGER Sam Ryder performed onboard luxury cruise ship Sun Princess while she was berthed in Southampton.

The British 2022 Eurovision entry - backed by a guitarist and drummer - played to a select crowd in the Princess Arena.

His performance, including the track Space Man, came as the ship made her first visit to the UK before setting sail.

BBC Radio 2 DJ Scott Mills performed at ship's entertainment venue The Dome into the night.

Speaking at an event onboard on Sunday, John Padgett, President of Princess Cruises said: "The Dome is spectacular, it's this unique feature that's unique to this class of ship , and it's modelled after Santorini, and it gives this indoor kind of climate controlled amazing sun bathing location in the daytime - complete comfort, complete zen.

"In the evening it turns into an entertainment venue - it has world class cirque-style shows that are really, really spectacular."

He said The Piazza is a fully-fledged entertainment venue, with a three-storey LED screen.
"It's fun there every night - I couldn't enjoy it anymore," he said.

He added the Princess Arena, where Sam Ryder performed on Sunday night, is the most cutting edge theatre that exists while remaining traditional.

The ship - which caters for 4,300 guests with a crew of 1,600 - was due to set sail on Monday to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This will be her first Caribbean season.

Eithne Williamson - vice president for UK and Europe - said the UK market is "so important" as the third biggest market for all Princess ships and the second biggest for Sun Princess.

Princess had seen a third consecutive record year in the UK market, she said.

Sun Princess is the 16th ship in the Princess Cruises fleet with Star Princess, the 17th, on her way.

Sun Princess is capable of being powered by LNG, and work continues to make the Princess fleet more sustainable, the event on Sunday was told.

Bio digesters and dehydrators have removed 40 per cent of food waste on board on the Princess fleet, and cooking oil is used as a biofuel.