DARLINGTON'S darling, Zoe Birkett, last night thanked all the people who have helped her get into the last five of ITV's Pop Idol show.

The 16-year-old's performance of Abba's Thank You For The Music on Saturday night's show received the highest praise of the night from the panel of judges.

With the competition getting harder, she hopes a strong performance in the next show, themed on big band music, will help her survive at least another week.

"I am really, really pleased. It is getting harder, getting really, really hard," said Zoe, adding that the Abba theme was the most difficult challenge yet.

Zoe sang last out of the six remaining contenders. Judge Pete Waterman said: "Zoe, thank you for the music."

Fellow judges Doctor Neil Fox and Simon Cowell also approved and enough of the 2,000,000 telephone votes that were cast made sure she was not evicted from the show.

But now Zoe, a student at Carmel RC Technology College, Darlington, is looking forward to the next round, and has chosen a big band song that she loves singing.

"I am singing quite a happy track. I can't tell you what it is, but I hope other people like it," she said last night. "I enjoy singing it."

To her fans, she said: "I would really like to say thank you very much for supporting me."

Zoe sticks to a pre-performance ritual as she waits to step out into the limelight.

"I keep at the side of the stage an Angel of Prosperity," she said, referring to an inspirational stone charm.

Her voice coaches make sure she drinks plenty of warm water before singing, to keep her voice at its best.

Other than that, she has two simple rules - going through her lyrics so she does not forget and making sure she does not fall down the studio steps.

For more about The Northern Echo's We're Backing Zoe campaign, visit the Revolution website at www.thisisrevolution.co.uk