A WANNABE pop star is ‘buzzing’ after his boyband were given an 11th-hour reprieve on The X Factor.

Sonny Hardman, of Car Bank Street, Atherton, was 'devastated' after Yes Lad were branded 'five boring boys' by music mogul Simon Cowell and fellow judge Louis Walsh shunted them off one of his prized seats in favour of flamboyant duo Ottavio and Bradley on the ITV talent show's six chair challenge.

Sunday night's snub was met with uproar on social media but Sharon Osbourne has come to the boyband's rescue by choosing them as the group category's wildcard for the next stage of the competition – judges' houses.

Sonny, 19, said: "I am buzzing and so grateful that we are back in the competition.

“We just want to make our mums and dads proud and show Louis and Simon that we can be great and change their minds about us.”

Managed by Nigel Martin-Smith, who launched Take That on the pop world, the five-piece boyband sung The Beatles classic Let It Be at Wembley Arena and were initially told by Louis to take a seat.

But with the judges criticising his selections for a lack of variety and Simon telling him that Yes Lad are 'unoriginal' and 'boring', Louis replaced them with the previously rejected Ottavio and Bradley to leave the boyband stunned and Sonny in tears.

Sonny said: “We thought we had smashed the six chair challenge and we were convinced that we were going through, but as everyone saw we lost our spot.

“I was devastated when we were kicked off, especially being told in front of 5,000 people.

"Having all those eyes watching us be rejected was just horrendous. We felt that we had let everyone down."

Despair turned to delight when the boys were told of their wildcard reprieve in a telephone call from Sharon.

Their second shot at X Factor glory was revealed on spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2.

Sonny and bandmates Cian Gleeson, Luke Gregory, Joel Healy and Lewis Maxwell will be competing with six other groups at mentor Louis' judges' house in Ibiza at the weekend.

Yes Lads already know their fate as the early stages of the show are pre-recorded.

They are contractually obliged to keep their fate a secret but Sonny said: “We loved Ibiza. It was really amazing and it did not feel like we were in a competition.

"We felt like real pop stars for a minute.”