Mary’s X Factor dream lives on

SUPERMARKET singing sensation Mary Byrne has moved a step closer to her dream of stardom after ringing up a knockout performance on X Factor.

The 50-year-old Dublin mum secured her place in the next round when she made it safely through the viewers’ phone-in poll last night to become one of the final 14.

The phone-in results came after a glammed-up Mary belted out the James Brown classic This Is A Man’s World to a prolonged standing ovation on Saturday night.

The Tesco checkout operator from Ballyfermot, who only sang to customers and friends before, fought back the tears as all four judges gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up.

Dannii Minogue declared the performance one of the best she had seen on the show. “It would be a crime if you went back to your day job. This needs to be your day job,” she said.

She knew she had it in the bag when even the normally merciless Simon Cowell succumbed to her appeal, describing her as “fantastic”. “You gave 110%. I am really happy to have you in the competition,” he said.

Louis Walsh, who is in charge of mentoring the over-28s in this year’s competition, was almost as delighted as Mary herself. “Mary the Tesco lady from Dublin has become a diva,” he told her.

Her triumph came after a week of drama when, in the middle of rehearsals, Mary was struck down by laryngitis and had doubts about whether she would even be able to appear on stage, let alone bring the house down.

Several days of intensive treatment came to her rescue and she vowed to give it her all, no matter how much she struggled – a promise she delivered on.

But she faces stiff competition in the show as the line-up is still dominated by much younger acts.

Mary’s success has been helped by the fact that Irish viewers can now call the phone-in lines, although the size of the British audiences means she still needs the support of the British public to get through.

She has been building up a huge fan base since bursting into the public eye during the show’s auditions and a Facebook site, Wow, Mary Byrne, set up to follow her X Factor adventure, has 13,000 registered users.

Italian Nicolo Festa became the first act to be booted off as the series started with a double eviction. Also in the bottom three were Katie Waissel and boyband FYD, but Katie survived by winning the sing-off.