A Bradford singer stands on the verge of pop stardom today after he ran away with the voting on TV's Pop Idol show.

Gareth Gates overcame his stutter to be voted one of two winners in the first semi-final of the ITV show.

The 17-year-old was voted through by a staggering 800,000 calls, after the public saw him performing Westlife's hit Flying Without Wings.

Gareth said: "I'm just thrilled about winning, it has all been brilliant.

"All the people on the show were really talented and I wasn't sure that I would get through. I am not getting my hopes up for the grand final, I am just going to try my best. I was really surprised by the amount of people that voted for me, I just did not expect it."

The show took more than 1.3million calls, 62 per cent of which voted Gareth. Zoe Birkett, of Darlington, took second place with ten per cent of the votes.

The panel of four judges slammed other contestants, but their only criticism of Gareth was to stop singing Westlife songs.

Gareth's mum Wendy, of East Bowling, said: "It's his dream to become a pop idol. I am over the moon that he has got this far, I just hope he gets his dream.

"I was crying when he was singing. This has been the most nerve-racking experience of my life. It is fantastic news, I'm so proud of him. We all celebrated as a family with a bottle of champagne."

The nation warmed to Gareth after seeing him overcome his stutter in his first audition and have been following his progress ever since.

It was the first live show Gareth has done since attending a course to improve his speech impediment. He now goes forward - along with nine other semi-final winners - to the final show in five weeks' time.

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