Mother's tribute to TV's talented Chloe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By5I51L3kWw

The mother of Britain's Got Talent star Chloe Hickinbottom's today paid a poignant tribute to the talented Black Country 10-year-old as hundreds of people joined her internet fan base.

The schoolgirl from the Walsall area has been named 7-1 favourite to win the TV talent series by bookies after being labelled "a star" on her stunning debut appearance in front of the judges on Saturday's series opener. Chloe was among a host of performers who proved that the Midlands has got talent.

She wowed judges Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden and Louis Walsh - a late substitute for Simon Cowell who was ill when the auditions stopped in Birmingham.

Chloe, a former pupil of Barcroft Primary School in Willehhall, won a standing ovation from the 2,000-strong audience with her version of Dame Vera Lynn's White Cliffs of Dover after admitting that she had previously been too embarrassed to sing in front of her family.

The youngster's proud mother Lucy Bray has now joined a Facebook campaign group called Chloe To Win Britain's Got Talent!!!

Her message on the social networking site's group, which has more than 1,500 members, reads today: "Well done my little angel. You're fantastic. I knew you would be a singer."

Piers Morgan told Chloe: "You have an extraordinary voice. You're a star."

Amanda Holden said: "I definitely wasn't expecting that.

"You have an old-fashioned big voice."

Louis Walsh said she was "born to sing" and had been "the biggest surprise of the day".

Chloe said: "Most of the time I sing at home with a brush in front of the mirror and sing my heart out.

"Now I'd like to be as big as Susan Boyle.

"I used to watch videos of Vera Lynn on YouTube singing to the troops and I thought to myself 'Why can't I just get up there and give it one big massive go?'"

Also winning through to the next round was Shrewsbury dog trainer Tina Humphrey and her dancing pooch Chandi, while 75-year-old Irish dancer Jimmy Ford, from Walsall, who appeared on stage dressed as a leprechaun, also qualified.