Yahoo News Let It Shine's Dan Budd is just a little too familiar
Let It Shine hopeful Dan Budd looked and sounded just a little bit too familiar to Gary Barlow during tonight's audition show as the Robbie Williams tribute act took to the stage to sing a classic Robbie song.
There's no denying that Dan has a good, strong, powerful voice - in fact, we're still not entirely sure it wasn't the actual Robbie Williams performing under a stage name for the laughs - but even going into the audition, Gary was a little weary of the strong similarities.
"Good grief, you look like a friend of mine," he said in disbelief before Budd even started singing.
And if he was really aiming for the complete effect, singing a near perfect imitation of 'No Regrets' certainly sealed the deal.
Dan gave his performance his all, but seeing as the aim of this is to put together a musical inspired by Take That songs and not put together a new Take That for the stage, Gary understandably had his doubts.
"We're trying to create this musical featuring the music," he said. "At no point do I want band members to be named, I want to take that out of it and have the music celebrated with an entirely new story.
"So by having someone who basically sounds and looks absolutely identical to Robbie is kind of going against everything I'm trying to do."
And while Dan's audition did manage to impress Dannii Minogue, she was also a little worried that she wasn't seeing Dan and was just seeing 'Robbie'.
"Your energy, your showmanship - there's nothing I could fault," she praised. "But did I see you?
"I'm thinking you couldn't not put this guy through, because his vocals are insanely good, insanely strong. They would easily hold up for eight shows a week and more."
In the end, Dan managed to impress enough to score a solid 16 stars - including a 3 from Gary that the star later wished he hadn't given, saying he'd thought it over and should have given 5 instead.
It's enough to see Dan through to the next round, where he'll hopefully take on Gary's advice to "de-Robbie" before we see him again.
Let It Shine airs on BBC One.
Don't forget to vote for your favourite TV shows in this year's National Television Awards! Shortlist voting closes at 12 midday on Wednesday, January 25.
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