Regional hopefuls in television battle

Zoe Birkett from Welbeck Avenue in Darlington has made it to the last 50 in the Pop Idol national search for a star.

Zoe was chosen from more than 100,000 people who auditioned for the chance to become a pop star.

Her efforts in the first two rounds of auditions were shown on the ITV show and her attempt to make it into the final will be broadcast live this Saturday evening.

Sixteen-year-old Zoe will sing alongside nine other competitors and the public will be asked to vote for their two favourite performers who will go through to the final.

The overall winner will get a recording contract and a professional management team working to make them a star.

Zoe, a student at Carmel Technology College, is confident the show will propel her to stardom.

She said: "The people in my semi-final are all really strong singers and I am sure the eight who don't make it through will still find fame.

"This is a once in a lifetime chance and I am very excited. Singing is going to be my career and this is the step onto the ladder I need.

"I have been singing since I was three-years-old and there's nothing else I am going to do."

Zoe, who attends the Stagecoach theatre school, first attended the show's audition in Manchester.

Although the Pop Idol judges have become renowned for their bitchy comments to the auditioning wannabes, Zoe escaped lightly at that audition and again when she performed in London to make the semi-final.

She said: "There were not too harsh to me. Any criticism they gave me was constructive and I could take it what they said away and work it into my performance to make it better."

Zoe is expected to sing Whitney Houston's One Moment in Time on tonight's show, a choice, made with the help of the show's judges.

Zoe has already played to a famous audience - she was invited to sing at Leo Blair's christening but tonight's show, watched in London by her family, will be the biggest performance of her life.