For those who have already crowned Susan Boyle champion of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent, there could be a shock in store.

Despite the Scottish singer’s explosion on to the music scene, with 100 million hits on YouTube, a new contender for the talent show title has emerged.

Sources close to the series believe that ten-year-old Hollie Steel, who will be shown auditioning on tonight’s programme, is the only performer who can challenge Boyle for the £100,000 top prize.

The budding ballerina, billed by Piers Morgan, one of the show’s judges, as a “tiny young girl singer . . . who will melt your heart”, will be shown performing a rendition of I Could Have Danced All Night, from the musical My Fair Lady. Although her dance moves do not excite Simon Cowell, viewers will see the music mogul’s jaw drop when Hollie, from Accrington, Lancashire, begins to sing.

At the end of her performance Morgan tells her: “We have seen a lot of children on our show over the last three series and I have never heard any of them sing as well as you do.”

Whether the youngster, whose mother and father both work for the NHS, will be able to topple Boyle remains to be seen. The last series saw Faryl Smith, then aged just 13, propelled to global stardom and a £2 million record deal. Smith, who eventually finished outside the top three in the competition, is now in America promoting her new album.

Boyle is still hot favourite to win the first prize in the show, which includes a chance to perform at the Royal Variety Performance.

Yesterday the 48-year-old contestant appeared to have broken her pledge not to have a makeover, having her greying hair dyed brown and her eyebrows trimmed.

In an interview earlier this week, Boyle said she was happy with the way she looked, but still felt scarred by the taunts she suffered because of her unruly hair as a youngster. “The ones who were mean to me then are now nice to me,” she said. “I still see the kids I went to school with because we all live in the same area,” she told Star magazine. “They accept me now. And look at me — I’ve had the last laugh.”

Online video clips of the unemployed church volunteer’s performance on April 11 have wowed fans around the world, and Boyle counts the actress Demi Moore among her supporters.

— Britain’s Got Talent will be shown at 8pm on ITV1

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010