A former Wellington Scots College choir boy has made it though the early stages of German reality show X-Factor — and become a minor local celebrity along the way.

New York-born Nick Gordon, 28, made it through two stages of the competition with his rendition of R-Kelly’s I Believe I can Fly, and has entered the Boot Camp phase.

The former Scots College choir boy and Wellington College student bolted through the early rounds, despite giving what he says was a poor performance and singing a song he swears he doesn’t like.

"Initially, I thought the worst thing that could happen would be that it would be funny.

"I think the actual singing performance was bad. So I guess I got through just on entertainment value."

But the judges liked what they heard at his Cologne audition. He passed with a three-one decision.

Judge Sandra Nasic even held aloft a swaying lighter during his song.

Gordon said he provided the judges with lighters before his performance as a joke, "in case the mood took them" while he sang.

Since the show aired last week, he said he’s been surprised with the attention he’s attracted.

"The show was screened on Sunday. And after the show they had an excerpt about me on a show called Celebrity. The idea was that I had put Bad Waldsee back on the map. Now people look at me on the street.

"On Monday I went to work and everyone was calling me Mr Superstar. After work I stopped at a servo [service station] and the girl next to me said, 'Hey, it’s you. You were awesome, seriously awesome ... Keep doing what you’re doing.'

"It’s pretty cool. I think now they have actually accepted me as one of their own."

Mr Gordon, who followed his girlfriend Britta Auer to Germany less than two years ago, taught himself German working at a local pub before earning a legal job at software company Avira.

He said he hadn’t known the structure of the reality singing show before he entered. Nor did he know who the German celebrity judges were.

He had signed up to compete at the last minute, on a whim.

"I went to Cologne expecting that it would be like American Idol, just with the judges in a room with a TV camera. I'd never seen X-Factor.

"But there about 1000 in the crowd. I was completely unprepared for an audience. I was like, holy s**t!"

The celebrity judges were rapper Moses Pelham, singer Sandra Nasic, Scooter frontman HP Baxxter. And also pop star Sarah Connor — "Apparently she’s the most famous [German] singer of all time. I thought she was Terminator’s mum."

The next episode of the show will air in Germany in the coming weeks.

"It [X-Factor] is something I never thought I would do, but I'm glad I worked up the balls to do it.

"In the meantime, I'll just keep doing the whole lawyer thing."

You can watch Nick perform on the show here. The conversation is in German - he begins to sing about 2 minutes, 55 seconds.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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