TWO talented Huddersfield singers are celebrating after making it through to the next stage of The X Factor.
Lowerhouses performer Ashford Campbell and Jordan Higo, who was the head boy at Newsome High School and Sports College, will now battle it out for a place in the live shows after he and his group, Nu Vibe, went sailing through to Judges Houses.
Jordan is a former Newsome High School pupil and part of the Huddersfield Giants scholarship scheme.
At the weekend viewers saw the pair perform at Boot Camp in a bid to make it through to the Boys category.
Their singing dreams appeared to come to an end when judges Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos, Kelly Rowland and Louis Walsh told them that they hadnt made it to the final stage.
But they were handed a lifeline when they were among the 24 contestants who were called back by the judges and asked to form six different groups.
They were teamed with fellow rejected solo singers Richard Milford, Stefan Romer and Bradley Johnson and called themselves Nu Vibe.
The group had only a day to rehearse before performing in front of 5,000 fans at Wembley Arena.
But their slick performance of the Bruno Mars track Grenade wowed Take That frontman Gary who said: Well, for me that was the surprise of the day.
Louis Walsh agreed, commenting: They have the look. Its only been 24 hours.
The group will now join their mentor, N-Dubz singer Tulisa, at her judges home in Mykonos, Greece, where they will perform against seven other groups.
Viewers will have to wait until next Sunday to see if they have done enough to make it to the final 16 performing on the live shows. But the group look likely to be a hit, with Paddy Power listing their winning odds of 11/1 and fans already rushing to post messages of support online.
Speaking to the Examiner, Ashfords mum Bernadette Baptiste, said her son was thrilled to have made it through to the next stage.
This is his dream and hes absolutely over the moon, she said.
I was proud of him before The X Factor as hes such a nice young man, but now I feel like its Christmas.
He rang me and said mum I havent made it through. I told him not to worry about it but then he told me he had and I just screamed!
I was bursting to tell everyone. I watched him on TV at the weekend with family at his grandmas home in Longwood.
Ashford loved flying out to Greece and spending some time getting to know the other lads.
They were so excited to get through. They didnt have any time to practise at all but they gelled together and Ashford helped organise the harmonies. They knew they had to nail it as they had come as solo artists while some of the other bands had known each other for years.
When Ashford found out that Jordan was from Newsome he thought what are the odds on that? Theyre like neighbours but they didnt know each other until now.
Ashford and Jordan join Birkby singer Carolynne Poole in making it through to the final stage of the competition in the Over 25s category.
The 31-year-old impressed with her rendition of REMs Everybody Hurts and will next be seen performing in front of her potential mentor Louis at his house in Barcelona.
