Norden singer has got the X Factor

He's got the X Factor...20-year old Lewis Brannigan.

A talented singer from Rochdale has made it through to the televised X-Factor auditions.

Lewis Brannigan, 20, from Norden has been through three auditions and is good enough to sing in front of the celebrity panel.

Lewis, a former Crompton House School pupil, has always been a keen singer, and following great reactions from doing karaoke in local pubs he decided to pursue the positive comments he received.

In April, whilst on a holiday in Cancun, Lewis did some karaoke and some American tourists in the audience told him to go for the English equivalent of ‘American Idol.’

When he returned to Rochdale Lewis decided to find out when the X Factor auditions were, only to find they were the following day!

Lewis said: “The open auditions were the morning after at Old Trafford, I had to make a decision, and I decided to go for it.”

Accompanied by his older brother Laurence, Lewis headed to the auditions at 7am and waited a further 11 hours before performing. The audition was a success and Lewis was invited back two days later.

With the pressure on, Lewis was one of 1,000 people out of 10,000 Manchester singers to be invited back for a third audition later that day.

The third audition required Lewis to perform in front of the Executive Producer of the show; and his performance was filmed and then sent to Sony.

After a whirlwind of auditions Lewis was told this week that he has made it through to the celebrity panel auditions in front of judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Cheryl Cole and Danni Minogue.

Lewis, who currently works for a watch distribution company as a sales representative, said: “I feel like I have accomplished something by getting this far, I thought that the first audition would be with Simon, so it means a lot to get to this stage.

“This is my FA Cup, I either make it and go on to bigger and better things or I try again next season.”

The next stage of the auditions will be in front of a live audience as the show follows in the footsteps of the other popular ITV show Britain’s Got Talent.

With musical influences including Michael Buble and James Morrision, Rochdale could have another star on the rise.