ALTHOUGH Stacey Solomon didn’t win The X Factor title ... she certainly won our hearts.
Every week the nation thrilled to the gawky 20-year-old single mum’s transformation into a smooth singing diva.
And every week we smiled when she dissolved back to bubbly, breathless Stacey from Dagenham as soon as Dermot O’Leary put a microphone in front of her.
Ms Solomon, the last girl standing in the phenomenally popular TV show, will be every inch the singing sensation when she steps onto the AECC stage tonight.
But she’s still very much Stacey from Dagenham when talking about coming to Aberdeen.
“I can’t wait to come to Aberdeen. I’ve never been before but it will be lovely,” she said in that now familiar pausing-only-for-a-gulp-of-air way.
“My aunt Heather lives in Scotland. I don’t quite know where, but it’s somewhere in the countryside, right by a loch.”
Stacey is just one of the X Factor finalists stopping in Aberdeen for a four-day sell-out run at the conference centre.
She’ll be strutting her stuff alongside winner Joe McElderry, runner-up Olly Murs, Danyl Johnson, Lucie Jones, Lloyd Daniels and Jamie Archer and, of course, the infamous Jedward.
Not that Stacey will hear a bad word said against the twins, John and Edward.
“I love them,” she said, when asked about the lads.
“I have been friends with them since the beginning. I loved them before the world fell in love with them.”
But what about the storm of controversy they set off with their, admittedly, entertaining high jinks disguising their poor voices?
“Yeah, but who’s laughing now?” said Stacey, quickly. “They are.” But, the bottom line is the X Factor is all about singing and it is something which Stacey does sublimely well.
She has three big numbers in the live tour, Who Wants To Live Forever, It’s A Wonderful World and Queen Of The Night.
But the big question is ... does she dance? She was famously panned for not, well, moving around too much during the telly show.
“I have one dancing number with Queen of the Night ... ooooh,” she said, laughing nervously.
“At first it was a case of ‘oh, Lord’ but now I’m doing it, I think I love it. It’s one of my favourite numbers.”
And it seems to be going down a storm with audiences too, according to Stacey who is clearly loving being in the limelight.
“This tour is just amazing. We’re going to the biggest arenas in the country and you just can’t believe you’re doing it,” she said.
“Everyone loves it. The fans go mad, people go crazy and everyone is saying it’s so good.”
She’s even managing to take her little son Zach along when gigs are close to home, although he’s not coming to Aberdeen.
Stacey is also enjoying being reunited with her X Factor mates.
“Because we were away from each other for so long, it was quite refreshing to get back into it. We’re all really getting on.”
Which is an opportune time to ask about Olly ... and those romance rumours.
There was a hint of a tut, before she replied: “Me and Olly are just really, really good friends and get on really well.
“When we were in the X Factor house we were from the same area and grew up with the same people. We were bound to get along and we just did.
“We still do ... but nothing’s going on, I’m afraid. Sorry.”
Not only is nothing going on the Olly front, apparently Stacey has a dearth of folk even chatting her up.
“It’s funny, everyone thinks I’m going to be inundated with offers and proposals, but no. Should I be?”
So, what would be her ideal date then?
“Just someone who’s funny and likes Pizza Hut,” she said.
“I just like Pizza Hut, it’s a nice place to go. I mean £5.49 for all you can eat, you can’t complain can you?”
Neither does Stacey complain about her time with the X Factor, in fact, she won’t say a word against it – even about the criticism from judges like Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh.
“I would hate to have been told I was good every week. That would be boring, you would have nothing to aspire to,” she said.
But what, ultimately, after The X Factor fuss has died away, does Stacey aspire to?
“To be successful at whatever I do. I’d like to have a good single or an album or be in musical theatre,” she said.
“Anything to do with singing ... if you have wanted to sing all your life, then get a career in it and do really well, then you’re a happy person, I think.”