Pop Idol contestant Katie Neiman scooped fourth place on the TV show but failed to make it through to the grand final.

The 17-year-old, from Pembroke Crescent, Hove, wowed audiences with her performance of Shania Twain's From This Moment on Saturday night and scooped 8.3 per cent of the public's votes.

She reached the final 50 contestants in the search-for-a-star contest after beating 10,000 hopefuls.

On Saturday she performed with ten other wannabes, but needed to come first or second to secure her a place in the grand final.

At home in Hove yesterday, she said: "I really didn't imagine that I would get anywhere in the top five.

"Nobody lost out in this because everybody gained from the experience we had. The people we met and the training we had, which was absolutely brilliant.

"People have contacted me and suggested I might have a go at presenting and people want me to sing this and that.

"Now I think it is definitely what I want to do, definitely music and singing."

Katie, who travelled to London with her father, Stephen, for the show said her mother, Caroline, watched at home with friends and family and cried.

It was estimated she had scooped about 130,000 votes from the public.