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Dad of Joe McElderry so proud of X Factor star

Dec 13 2009 by Gordon Barr, Sunday Sun

Jim Mcelderry, father of X Factor finalist Joe Mcelderry

PROBATION officer Jim McElderry has to be the proudest father in the North today.

But the doting dad will be on tenterhooks until tonight, when he will be in the audience to see if his son Joe is crowned the 2009 X Factor champion.

Jim travelled with family to London yesterday to watch Joe perform in the first part of the live televised final.

Tonight, millions of viewers will find out who wins the talent show - but for the past 18 years there has only ever been one winner in his life, his son Joe.

“I always knew he had something special,” said Jim, 47, who grew up in Newcastle and now lives in Gateshead.

“We used to go to a recording studio as a bit of a laugh as a family and make CDs. When he played his first CD in the car, I said to him it was really good.

“Most people who listened to it the first time burst into tears. You do get emotional when you hear your child sing.

“When he said he was going to go for X Factor, it is so big and there are so many people applying for it, you can never, ever think from that point to the situation he is in now, we would be here. It is beyond lots of people’s dreams.

“He’s always sung in the car whenever we’ve been going anywhere, but never, ever actually taking a lead and thinking he wanted to go anywhere with it.

“That started about four years ago.”

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