Alex Parks: Christina Aguilera song

Alex, 19, is aiming to become one of the lucky 13 finalists to enter the house when she appears in the last heats on Wednesday.

At stake, a lucrative recording contract and the life of a pop star for a year.

Alex grew up in the Cornish village of Mount Hawke and loves surfing and hanging out by the beach.

But the laid-back lifestyle has left her quivering with expectation of the showdown against six others, when she will be performing the Christina Aguilera song Beautiful.

She said: "I am so nervous. I feel a bit better now because I've just come out of rehearsals.

ALEX PARKS School: Richard Landers Secondary, Truro. Former junior County Champion Javelin Thrower 9 GCSEs Attends The Hub theatre school in Cornwall

"At least now I've sung it through I know vaguely what I am doing.

"But you can't even imagine what you are going to feel like when you step onto that stage."

Alex has been writing soft rock songs since the age of 15.

But her first musical performance was at the age of 13 when she was on school camp.

When she was 15 she entered and won a singing competition, winning �2,000.

That led to her joining soft-rock band One Trick Pony where she wrote her first song To You.

She grew up listening to Michael Jackson and Elvis. But she is particularly inspired by powerful and independent singer-songwriters such as Ani di Franco, Annie Lennox, Skin from Skunk Anansi and Jimi Hendrix.