A teenager from Ipswich enjoyed an unexpected confidence boost during a family holiday to Florida.

Macauley Elvin, 16, from Chaucer Road in Ipswich, has just returned from across the pond. When he left for the USA earlier this month he never expected that he would perform live on stage in front of a crowd of over 1,000 people… twice.

Macauley, a keen singer who hopes to make a career in showbusiness, was on a visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida when he heard about the American Idol Experience, a competition run every day which earns the winner a fast-track to the auditions for the USA’s biggest televised talent show.

With over 30,000 people coming through the gates of the Walt Disney theme park on one day competition is stiff, but Macauley decided to give it a go.

He became one of only 20% of participants to make it through to the second round of auditions. He was then given 20 minutes to prepare two songs before auditioning in front of two producers and a camera.

Only 15 people are selected every day to make it on to the next round of live shows; Macauley made it on not once, but twice.

Having competed in the tournament when he first visited Hollywood Studios on January 14th, he returned on the 18th for another go.

The winner of the live shows is voted by the audience and receives a ‘dream ticket’ to go straight before the judges of American Idol. Unfortunately, despite doing so well in front of the producers, Macauley was unable to carry the popular vote.

However the experience has filled him with even more determination to succeed.

“It would have been amazing to get into a proper show and to sing in front of the judges, especially J Lo who is such an amazing artist,” he said. “I was really excited and just going for it on stage.”

Now Macauley has decided to audition for this year’s X-Factor: “I’m going to try my very best to try and get to the TV shows.”

Macauley’s father Kenneth said: “We were really proud, me and his Mum, we were really happy for him because he loves performing. He really wants to get into music and he absolutely loves it and goes to concerts every year.”

The young star has already competed in Ipswich Has Got Talent and Felixstowe’s Got Talent, as well as performing on local radio stations.

Not only that but he’s on first name terms with bands like Backstreet Boys and McFly. He first met Backstreet Boys when he was 13. The second time he met the boy band he sang their hit record ‘Drowning’ with them and the third time he met them band member Brian Littrell recognised him by name.

Macauley plans to spend the next few months practising for his upcoming X-Factor auditions.