Mary-Jess : Simon Cowell dumped me

It is the sort of heart-warming story that has made vast profits for Simon Cowell and his brand of instant chart success. An unassuming young girl from a single-parent family rises to fame thanks to an appearance on primetime television  -  and millions of votes from the viewers. So far, so familiar, you might think, and another triumph for The X Factor. Today, Mary-Jess Leaverland, 21, has a contract with Decca, a new album ready for release and has just completed a tour of Britain with the popular tenor Russell Watson. Her decision to brave the TV audience has certainly paid off. But mention Cowell's name and you do not get the reaction you might expect. Because the talent show in question is not the one presided over by Simon, Louis Walsh and co. Her success came courtesy of Min Xing Chang Fan Tian or I Want To Sing To The Stars  -  otherwise known as the Chinese X Factor. Indeed, far from helping Mary-Jess, Cowell's version of the show had the nerve to dump her before she even made it in front of the viewers, leaving the young student less than impressed. 'My mother is a good singer and we both went along to the British X Factor trials in Birmingham,' she explains. 'We auditioned as solo artists and then as a duo. 'The producer said we could only enter as a duo, but when we got to the third audition, the one before the judges, we were sent away. 'We were told, "Who would want a mother-daughter duo?" when it was the programme's idea in the first place. 'I think they put people through who have stories, but we didn't get to talk about ourselves. It was a case of, "Go in and sing."' It is possible, of course, that the producers were looking for something more colourful  -  more tearful, maybe  -  than a hard-working student of music and Chinese from Sheffield University. But it was her academic commitment that paid off. 'I was awful at French but I had a couple of friends who were taking Chinese and I thought it was great fun,' Mary-Jess explains. It was on offer at her secondary school in Gloucestershire, and she was able to start learning at the age of 12. 'It was such a musical language. There are four or five tones in Mandarin, so you can say the same word but with a different tone so it means different things.' She demonstrates by saying 'ma ma' in different ways. To me, she sounds like a cat, but the range of meanings included both 'mother' and 'horse'. 'I was really surprised I took to it so well, but it caught my attention, so in a way my musical background helped,' says Mary-Jess. Although disappointed to have been rejected by The X Factor judges, Mary-Jess had long accepted that commercial breakthroughs are few and far between. 'For my entire life, I have only wanted to be a recording artist,' she says. 'But the music business is fickle.' So she had settled on a Plan B, taking a degree course at Sheffield. It was in the second year of that fouryear course, that Mary-Jess went for a year's placement in Nanjing, a city just inland from Shanghai in the central-eastern part of China. Mary-Jess says: 'I was looking forward to spending a year somewhere different, but apprehensive to be so far away from home and my boyfriend Rich, especially as my tutors did not speak English to me. 'Everybody lived in student accommodation  -  I shared a room with another girl  -  but the accommodation for the foreign students was much nicer than for the Chinese students. 'That said, there were 40 girls and only two showers and two squat lavatories. Even modern nightclubs in China have lavatories without doors. 'When we went out to eat I was shocked at the strange things on the menu. Turtles are popular. They also have eels and chicken's feet.' While settling into university life in Nanjing, she could not resist the chance to enter what she thought was a local talent contest when she was visiting some television studios. 'I walked past one where a guy was singing to a backing track. It looked like an exciting opportunity, so I asked how I could get on the show. I was introduced to the producer and had to sing for him on the spot. Two weeks later they called me, but by that time I was ill with the flu. They wanted me to come in straight away but I couldn't go  -  I could hardly speak. The next day, at the university, I saw a poster for an open-mic night. 'I thought it wouldn't matter if I wasn't very well because it was an opportunity to meet musicians and I wouldn't have to go anywhere but the more I spoke to the organiser, the more I realised it was far more than just an open-mic night. 'Then she said it was on TV. It was the same show I was too ill to do. So instead of thinking, "I can't be croaky on Chinese TV if it's my chance to be noticed," I thought it might be the only opportunity to realise my dream and that I should do it. She ran to the chemist for cough medicine and went live on Chinese TV, competing with other foreigners for a small prize. 'Then I was invited back for the bigger X Factor-style programme that's held once a year. The Chinese show is set up slightly differently. 'You have to sing a variety of songs to showcase your voice. You sing every day for two-and-a-half weeks. You're live on Chinese TV every night.' The prize is somewhat different, too: the equivalent of just £1,000 although, as Mary-Jess points out, that goes a long way in China. In the course of the various heats, Mary-Jess sang songs including O Mio Babbino Caro and Stop by Sam Brown to show the range of her voice and expression. 'There were no mentors, no singing teachers, you were on your own but for the Chinese stylist who always wanted to curl my hair and make me look a bit whiter. Chinese people love white skin and see the West as exotic. I thought they would want a Chinese person to win but they voted for me. I couldn't believe it.' Singing as the only Westerner on the show, she delighted the audience with Sarah Brightman's Time To Say Goodbye, Mariah Carey's When You Believe and Yeu Guang Ai Ren (Moonlight Lovers), the theme tune to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The prize money was just enough for her to fly home for Christmas. By this time several major record companies were fighting over her and she signed with Jonathan Shalit, the agent who has managed the careers of stars including Myleene Klass, Tulisa Contostavlos (the new X Factor judge) and Charlotte Church. 'I never expected the huge media storm that followed my winning the competition,' says Mary-Jess. 'It was a whirlwind. ' But Mary-Jess's success is no fluke. Her 46-year-old mother Liz is an experienced singer with cover bands. She is also friends with the rock singer and instrumentalist Steve Winwood, and they have sometimes performed together. Mary-Jess's grandmother, an important figure in her life, was also a serious singer. 'She was a remarkable woman and was only in her 50s when she died of cancer,' says Mary-Jess. 'She got me an audition with Gloucester Cathedral Youth Choir but they were looking for candidates who were 11 or older and I was nine. She said she wanted me to have the experience of the audition and not to worry if I didn't get in. 'But they wanted me. So I had free singing lessons. I think I've inherited my grandmother's determination and the idea that you should be positive and not let anything stop you.' Above all, though, it is her mother Liz whom Mary-Jess thanks for her current good fortune. 'When I was growing up I knew things were hard, as my parents split when I was two, but Mum always tried to make sure we didn't notice. 'We've always been so close, we've always been honest with each other. I don't think we've ever had a single argument. She is the most capable woman I know.' One of the first songs Mary-Jess wrote was for her mother, Stand As One, and the music  -  although not the words  -  is used on the current TV advertisement for Procter &  Gamble's Proud Sponsor Of Mums campaign. Did she ever feel that she had missed out on having a father figure? 'Not really. He was on the end of a phone if I needed anything.' Money, though, was tight. Foreign holidays were out of the question and Liz resorted to a rather specialised task to earn some extra cash: sewing leather hoods for pet falcons. It took eight months of sewing before her two daughters, Mary-Jess and Sheridan, could have bicycles. 'I am grateful for my background, which means I never take anything for granted,' says Mary Jess. 'Recording my album at Abbey Road Studios with an orchestra was amazing. 'We recorded some native Chinese instruments in Beijing, a Chinese flute, a Mongolian horse-hair fiddle, which is played like a cello, and Chinese war drums. 'I was able to discuss with the musicians the way I wanted to hear them play. It was incredible to tell that calibre of musician what I thought we should do. 'The winner of the UK X Factor is very much created and marketed by The X Factor. I'm pleased I was able to shape my own music the way I heard it in my head.' Mary-Jess's album Shine will be released this summer.