Joe McElderry, the cute 18 year old student from South Shields, won the hearts of judges and audience at his first audition with a performance of ‘Dance with my Father’ by Luther Vandross. Simon was surprised at his choice of “tough” song, but Joe said it was a “I just like singing it.” His family and friends cried at the side of the stage as he sang, and the judges loved it. Louis said it was a “great performance and you have great likeability,” Cheryl said she was proud that he was representing their city, and Simon, after delivering the fourth resounding ‘yes’ said “We may just have found ourselves a pop star!” High praise indeed, but would his success continue at bootcamp?
Nerves almost got the better of Joe during his performance of ‘Praying for Time’ at the Hammersmith Apollo. “I don’t know whether that’s going to be good enough. I don’t think it would have been,” he told Dermot afterwards. Simon thought he was a year or two away from being right for the competition but Joe McElderry was through. “Things like this don’t happen to people like me.” he said.
Things like that did happen to him, and he gave another emotional performance, this time of ‘Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word’, in front of his mentor Cheryl and Will Young. They both loved his voice, and after a tough decision, where Cheryl had to put any personal liking for the teenager aside, it was time to break the news. When Cheryl told Joe that he was through, he looked at her in disbelief “No way! No way!” he cried, and gave her a hug that almost knocked her off the sofa. There could be a lot more emotion on the way with Joe.
