A LOCAL teenager proved he has the X Factor when he appeared on the celebrated television show of the same name last weekend.

Barclay Beales (17), from Bow, blew the panel away in his first audition, shown on ITV on Saturday evening, with his unique yodelling and performed One Direction's What Makes You Beautiful on Sunday evening, when he landed a slot at London's Wembley Arena.

On the panel were Nicole Scherzinger, Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne.

Barclay started his arena audition with a bit of yodelling from backstage, heralding his performance and Nicole loved the little warning.

Sharon teased: "One quick yodel from you sends shivers down Nicole's spine! Shivers!"

The young singer brought the panel to a stunned silence, with Sharon giving Gary a knowing smile during the performance.

Nicole, the former "Pussycat Doll" leapt to her feet and stripped off her jacket as Barclay put on an impressive vocal display.

Following the audition, Barclay said: "I am fairly sure I am the only yodeller on The X Factor. My first room audition was amazing. Nicole went crazy. She said it was hot afterwards, as well. What 17 year old doesn't want that?

"I taught myself to yodel, just by watching videos. I have never been taught by someone that can actually do it. I don't know anyone else that can do it.

"Yodelling, on stage, is a huge risk, I have never done it before in front of a crowd. It's scary."

The song started out fairly normally. However, by the end of the first verse, it slipped into yodelling and no-one would have expected a 1D track to lend itself so brilliantly to this unusual style.

The judges said: Nicole: "Oh Barclay, I love a good yodel. That's super duper hard and technical and you make it so easy. That was awesome, good job. You are one of a kind."

Gary Barlow: "Barclay I love the yodelling. My only problem is when you sing in your own voice it's not as impressive as when you're yodelling. It's still brilliant, the yodelling...."

Sharon Osbourne: "Gary is right. I don't want you to be a gimmick, so you have got to back it up with that voice. Barclay, darling, you have to promise to work on those vocals."

Louis Walsh: "Barclay, you absolutely look like a pop star and even without the yodelling, I still think you have star quality."

Barclay, who is currently unemployed, got four "yeses" and a pass to the "Boot Camp" stage.

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