HE seemed to be the singer the judges loved to ridicule. Darius Danesh, sporting long hair and a goatee beard when appearing on Popstars last year, was told he was "cheesy".

Off camera, it is alleged, one of the judges said he had a great future . . . as the leader of a cult. He failed to reach the final 10 which spawned winning band Hear'Say and the runner-up fivesome who went on to have huge chart success as LibertyX.

In his disappointment, and to hide his sorrow, Darius told Popstars judge "Nasty" Nigel Lythgoe that he would have made a platinum album by the time he was 35.

And big-hearted Darius has proved the Popstars judges' criticisms were harsh.

He picked himself up, dusted himself off, cut his hair and shaved his beard -- and wowed the Pop Idol panel and millions of television viewers when he burst back onto our TV screens at the end of last year. He lost out in the earlier voting rounds when up against roly-poly Rik Waller, but Rik had to pull out of the contest . . . leaving Darius back in the ring again.

His determination to succeed won him fans across the country and he went from strength to strength, ending up third in the Pop Idol contest.

And on Sunday East Lancashire pop fans will be among the first to hear his debut single, Colourblind, before its release on July 29 -- a song he wrote himself at the beginning of the Pop Idol auditions.

While the two Pop Idol finalists released cover tracks for their first singles -- Will, as winner, was obliged to sing Westlife's Evergreen and followed it with The Doors' Light My Fire while Gareth released Unchained Melody -- Darius was able to put his blossoming songwriting talents to good use.

But as fate would have it, his five-album deal with the Mercury label, a subsidiary of Universal, might have come about without his appearance on either TV show.

A friend of Darius' is a producer who knew Steve Lillywhite, one of the newly-appointed managing directors of Mercury, who is internationally renowned for his work with bands such as Travis and U2. Steve had been out of the country for the duration of Popstars and Pop Idol and had no knowledge of the Glaswegian lad who shares his name with a Persian king, but loved the demo for Colourblind and wanted to know who was behind it.

Darius, 21, told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph: "I met him in a Turkish restaurant. We had a kebab and by the end of the meal he said he wanted to sign me and offered me a five-album deal. I was over the moon."

Even now, Darius finds it quite hard to believe he is where he is. Caught up in a hectic whirl of press and radio interviews, he said: "I would never have imagined that less than a year after the Pop Idol auditions I would be releasing Colourblind as my debut single. Every morning when I wake up I have to pinch myself and remind myself of how lucky I am."

But with Darius, it's more to do with determination and talent than Lady Luck's whims. As a child, he learned to play the saxophone and piano and fronted a school band called Jade at the age of 16. And he wouldn't have missed the experience of being on Popstars and Pop Idol for anything. "I am fortunate to have had the experience which has shaped my songwriting," he said.

His transformation from long-haired student to sexy, hip-wiggling superstar was brought about when his six-year-old brother Cyrus nagged him to cut his hair. He had grown it as a protest in his late teens after, at the age of 16, being made to join the Territorial Army by his school. "I was always a bit of a rebel and didn't like being told what to do," he said.

Now he is looking forward to receiving a rousing reception from East Lancashire folk. "One of my friends is a Lancashire lass -- she's an ex-girlfriend now but we're good mates, and I'm still very fond of the accent," he said. "I'm looking forward to performing on Sunday and I hope to do everybody proud." But what else will he be singing apart from his new single? "Wait and see," was all he would say.

10 things you didn't know about Darius

1 He has two brothers, Aria, 18, and Cyrus, 6

2 His father, Iranian-born Booth, is a consultant gastro-enterologist at Glasgow's Stobhill Hospital

3 His mother Avril is a GP in Johnstone, near Paisley

4 He was mainly influenced by his mother's record collection -- The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel and Bob Dylan

5 He took his mum to the Scottish Woman of the Year dinner

6 When he was nine, he promised he would do all the chores around the house if his mum would buy him a guitar

7 He performed Carmen in Covent Garden with the Scottish Opera

8 One of his favourite videos is Bad by Michael Jackson

9 When he was four he was in the musical version of Peter Pan at kindergarten

10 His favourite musicians include Alanis Morissette and George Michael