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Irish Eyes

Tyrone girl Janet installed as early X Factor favourite

Janet Devlin, 16, from Gortin in Co Tyrone, is the 7/2 favourite to win the series outright after her audition broadcast last night.

16-YEAR-OLD TYRONE GIRL Janet Devlin has been installed as the bookmakers’ favourite to win this year’s X Factor after her first round audition was broadcast last night.

Devlin – from Gortin in Co Tyrone, an area she described as being in “the middle of nowhere” – wowed the show’s new judging panel with a rendition of ‘Your Song’, the Elton John song recently revived by Ellie Goulding.

All four judges hailed her performance before unanimously agreeing to put a visibly nervous Devlin through to the ‘boot camp’ round.

Celebrities on Twitter also hailed her performance – Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand remarked that Janet “has pure star quality”, while singer Lily Allen simply said: “I love her.”

The teenager had already built up a following from your YouTube channel, where she has uploaded videos of her singing other recent songs – including ‘When We Collide’, the Biffy Clyro song with which Matt Cardle won last year’s series.

Bookmaker Paddy Power has already ranked the 16-year-old as its 7/2 favourite to win the series outright – despite last night’s audition show being the first of the series.

It had previously priced Devlin at 20/1, but said it had slashed its odds based on the public reaction to her audition.

“It’s very early days yet, but Janet stood out from all the acts we’ve seen so far, and already our punters think she has just enough quirkiness and talent to go all the way,” Sharon McHugh of Paddy Power said.

Other successful auditionees from last night’s show include Frankie Cocozza, who has been priced at 25/1, and Goldie Cheung who (unsurprisingly) has been priced at 100/1.

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