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Singapore has chosen the winner of it's local equivalent of Pop Idol .Β .Β .Β and, god help him, he's blind!

Kelvin Tan (better known as Wei Lian), 24, beat his closest rival Kelly Poon in last Thursday's final of Project Superstar at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

In a brilliant twist that'll probably find its way into the next ITV singy songy tears and laughter starmaker show (TM), the two finalists both had to perform a song specially written to play on their vocal weaknesses. So, Kelvin had even more of a challenge in his life that night, didn't he? Eh?

Tan (the blind one) won 64% to Poon's 36%. Both winners get recording contracts and are expected to become big selling stars in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.

Thanks to Sarah Bush for the following link to a story in the , which is already comparing our star to Stevie Wonder. That's because he's blind, see. The paper prints the following:

Ideal image: Humble boy-next-door who inspires people.

Greatest strength: Ability to touch people's hearts.

Worst weakness: His blindness.

And it carries a beautiful quote from Mandarin language radio station UFM's vice-president, Anna Lim:

"He can't be an idol singer because of his disability, but he has the support of the masses."

So if you had thought about auditioning for next year's X-Factor, forget it. There ain't no X nowhere near you, unless we're talking about unusual chromosomes.