A FORMER Bury student is down to the nail-biting stages of The X Factor.

This weekend teenager Daniel Fox appears on the ITV1 talent show with mentor Cheryl Cole in Morocco as he battles for a place in the final 12.

Daniel, who studied performing arts at Bury College, was chosen as one of the final 24, despite Cheryl’s disapproval when he sang U2’s With Or Without You in the bootcamp stages.

This week, Daniel said he was “disappointed” when he discovered the Girls Aloud star was mentoring the boys’ group.

He said: “I wasn’t pleased at all because Cheryl didn’t get me. She didn’t agree with the others and she didn’t understand what my singing was about.”

Daniel, aged 19, of Bury Old Road, Heywood, said viewers can expect “quite a drama” on this weekend’s show when he sings Mariah Carey’s Without and Lonestar’s I Am Already There.

Daniel revealed: “She ends up walking off upset and starts crying and I hear her saying to the producers ‘this doesn’t feel right’, then they take her into a room and talk to her.”

But Daniel was tight-lipped about whether he managed to change Cheryl’s mind to reach the live stages.

He said: “She tells me I am an incredible artist and I have more passion than anyone else. I don’t know what they said to her in that room, I will find out when I watch the show.”

Daniel attended the Carol Godby Stage School in Bury for five years, before joining the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

He reached the house auditions after impressing Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue with his operatic singing voice.

Daniel said: “I have absolutely loved it, it’s been fantastic and I’m so glad I did it, it’s something I have always wanted to do.”