X Factor's Jahmene Douglas, a poetry-reciting dog owner and singing with a Fruit Shoot in your mouth!

                  Jahmene in 2011 with Swindon Talent stars Samantha Millard (left) and
                            Jade Wilkinson at a photocall for the Mayor's charity concert.

THE Arts Centre in Swindon is a small theatre with just 224 seats, a tiny stage and a very intimate atmosphere. You don't tend to get the big acts playing there - for example, former Eurovision winners, Brotherhood of Man ("Save Your Kisses For Me", "Figaro" and "Angelo") are performing at the Old Town  venue next week.

It was summer two years ago, while editor of the Advertiser, that myself and Shirley Ludford from the community radio station, Swindon 105.5, were running our third series of "Swindon's Got Talent", based on five or six heats staged at venues around the town, culminating with finals at the bigger Wyvern Theatre that August.

On this particular Tuesday evening, Shirley and myself were judging the heats of an open mic round at the Arts Centre. Folk turned up to the theatre, booked in at the foyer, stood up on stage and strutted their stuff for five minutes.

We've had the good, the bad and the ugly, including a comedian who walked on stage, introduced himself and then bottled it to walk off. We had an elderly man recite poetry while his pet collie watched on longingly from the back of the stage, and a wierdo who tried to sing while drinking a Fruit Shoot! It was messy!

We also had some cracking acts since the competition started in 2008, but was bizarely ended once I left the newspaper in 2011, along with a lot of other community involvement in the town. Nice to see the Adver's now proudly jumping on the Jahmene bandwagon!

Anyway, on this particular evening, a shy and retiring Jahmene Douglas took to the stage with all the confidence of a tightrope walker with double vision. His high-pitched speaking voice couldn't betray the nerves and you sensed, almost Susan Boyle-like, that this audition wasn't going to go well.

Jahmene closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then, as the opening chords of Dreamgirls' "I Am Changing" were played over the theatre audio, you could see this young man change before your eyes. It was magical.

His stance changed, his shoulders stiffened and from his mouth came this most wonderful of voices; moody, melodic, lilting and elegant. Here's a video of Jahmene's performance that evening: http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/video/102474/?page=1

For the next three minutes, Jahmene gave this most mesmorising of performances and when he finished he looked embarrassed when the theatre audience rose as one to applaud the arrival of a star.

It was no surprise when six weeks' later, Jahmene received another standing ovation in the finals which he won with a soulful composition of his own - no all expenses-paid Caribbean holiday or lucrative recording contract, but instead a small Swindon Talent 2010 winner's trophy.

Then, just 19-years-old, a star was born. “It feels unreal – I’m used to just walking off and hoping that people liked it," Jahmene told me afterwards. "It's like a door has opened – this means I can carry on singing and hopefully go to London. My mum was in the audience and this will mean so much to her as well. I’m so grateful.”

The surprise, I guess, was that nothing happened. Then studying at New College in Swindon, Jahmene was hoping to go to London to carve out a career as a professional singer. Jahmene worked with a local music agent doing gigs in the area, he went to London to record some tracks, but in the end he finished up working at Asda Wallmart in North Swindon.

Our paths crossed several times. He performed at a couple of concerts in town which I comperered and willingly gave up his time to share his talent. Jahmene, who is closely involved with his church, is painfully shy, very humble and often ends sentences with a little embarrassed laugh, as if he couldn't work out why people liked him and was wowed by his talent.

Last April, Jahmene sang at my wedding reception in Swindon, putting on a gorgeous half hour set. Jahmene's not the most organised of people. We weren't even sure if he was going to turn up on the day since he'd missed rehearsals earlier in the week, and left various notes on my Facebook page saying he hoped to make it. Fortunately, he turned up and was superb.

Ironically, Jahmene had then just auditioned for the BBC talent show "The Voice", but failed to make it through. That evening at the Blunsdon House Hotel, he and another Swindon Talent finalist, Samantha Millard, put on a spell-binding show to our friends and family. It was class, sheer and utter class, and a privlege to have Jahmene there.

Now this weekend, Jahmene will be on national television in front of millions of viewers as he competes in the judges' houses round of X Factor. At his audition, he had the judges purring with Etta James' hit "At Last" with Gary Barlow declaring "That is how you do an audition".

And fellow judge Tulisa gushed: “You have not got just The X Factor, not just raw talent but you have the shock factor. When you stepped on the stage you were like a timid little soul and you couldn’t express yourself, but you started expressing yourself the minute you started singing and it was freaking amazing!”

Suddenly, he became a YouTube sensation, made a premature 5-1 favourite by bookies to win X Factor, and my former local paper describes the mood as "Jahmenia" sweeping the town.

But then last weekend at Boot Camp, Jahmene gave a disastrous performance of Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger", suffered a pre-stage panic attack before pulling it off with a show-stopping rendition of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" to book his place in this weekend's final showdown. It made for absorbing TV.

The X Factor machine has moved into action pretty quickly. Jahmene's Facebook personal account was closed down this summer and a more off-hand business page created. He's been writing a lot on his Facebook page and Tweeting offering words of wisdom, posting pictures and thanking fans for their support. But already, his life as moved on and a slight distance established for the lad from Wroughton. Understandably so.

We know he was in Dubai last month with Pussycat Dolls' Nicole Scherzinger and the five other boys competing for those three coveted spots for the live finals, but Jahmene was giving nothing away in his postings whether it was good or bad news. Chart sensation Ne-Yo joined Nicole in the Gulf to  cast an eye over the contestants.

The judges' houses shows will be screened in a double bill this Saturday and Sunday night on ITV, with the 12 acts who have made it through to the live finals revealed on Sunday night's show - and the first live show on October 6

Jahmene's biggest obstacle is his nerves and sometimes a self doubt about his own ability. His biggest asset is his talent, with the voice of a nightingale, and a vocal range which at times, defies belief. One hopes that this is the stepping stone for Jahmene to really make it big. He deserves it.