A STAR is to be born in York this weekend as a young pop hopeful awaits his big break onto our TV screens.

Dan O'Shea, 20, from Wilberfoss, has told the Evening Press how excited he is about his big chance on the first show of this year's Fame Academy on Saturday.

"It's a total dream for me," he said.

"It is a strange feeling. I was so determined to get here, to this stage, and now I am.

"Now I just want to make the very best of it, and enjoy it."

Dan will be battling it out with six other hopefuls for one of four places in the Fame Academy house in the first heat of the show, and ultimately the chance to win a recording deal and millionaire lifestyle for a year.

"It is what I have always wanted," he said.

"Now I think about it, it's just an amazing chance."

Dan began his musical career young, his first live gig being in a Cub Scout talent competition, winning the competition with the classic One Man Band.

Since then he has performed extensively with regular performances in the city's bars, a BBC music event in the city, and the Barbicube music festival at the Barbican.

Dan is also a keen actor. At 17 , he auditioned for RADA and made it through several rounds of auditions, before last year beginning to study for a degree in Music and Drama at York St John College.

At the university, he took on the role of Bruno in a production of Fame, an appropriate role for the run up to his entrance into the Academy.

"In a strange way that was great preparation for all this," he said.

"There I was acting all the emotions I'm going through now - but now it's for real."

But now the "indie-folk" guitarist and keen singer-songwriter, inspired by artists from Leonard Cohen to Eva Cassidy, has only one thing on his mind.

"I intend to be the biggest rock star that ever lived, that's the plan, and I think it can happen," he said.

"But in the meantime, I've been keeping my feet on the ground by coming home after every audition and doing some work for a cancer appeal with my Mum."

Updated: 09:54 Friday, July 25, 2003