Beverley Trotman was voted off X Factor but won a role in Fame and an album contract.

YOU want fame, well fame costs… goes the famous line from Fame The Musical. None know that better than Beverley Trotman, who has survived the highs and lows of TV’s X Factor in 2007 to land a starring role in the show’s latest tour. As Fame rolls into the Sunderland Empire next week, the 39-year-old is still excited about gaining her first big professional chance as the New York’s High School of Performing Arts English teacher, Miss Sherman, who some see as a baddie.

“This is all new to me because it’s my first acting job. I would say she was passionate. She’s passionate about everyone and her job and about wanting the kids to get more than singing and dancing out of school. Really, for them it is the last chance of getting any kind of academic education. If you can’t read or write, you’re not in a very good position,” says Trotman, who plays a character ultimately winning a battle of wills with dyslexic hip hop dancer Tyrone Jackson.

Her own struggle for fame in front of millions began in tragic circumstances.

“X Factor was probably the toughest thing I’ve ever done. I have no regrets at all and I can say it because I’ve been in a good position since the show to work and sing. I’ve been told time and again that talent will come through. That’s what my comfort has been,” she says about being eliminated by the public vote after the judges were split 2-2 on her fate three weeks from the final.

“The minute you’re in the final 12 you’re already a winner because you’ve been the ones picked out of 150,000. I’d had two personal tragedies. My grandmother had passed away on Mother’s Day and my natural father died in the June, so my husband and I decided to go to Wales for a few days for a break and combine it with an X Factor audition.

“When I got there the queue was quite short. There were no horror stories of thousands waiting for hours and hours. I burst the doors open and sang Respect. It’s funny when I watch it back now because Simon (Cowell) said ‘You’re not lacking in confidence’, but inside I was scared and shaking like anything. I thought ‘I’ve only got the one chance’,” Trotman says about the gruelling three rounds which led to her landing a place on Louis Walsh’s Over-25s group.

“To be honest, each time I got through I thought ‘nah’ because of my age. I was just waiting to be told ‘this is as far as you go’. But it didn’t happen. My husband and I just enjoyed it for what it was,” she admits.

Trotman, who had sung everything from gospel to Motown back in home town Luton, reveals that as soon as she landed the Fame job she was asked to start work on an album. “It’s a Christian contemporary album that’s going to be out in June, so I’ll also be promoting that for the next month or so. Any spare time I’ve had I’ve been going along to the studio and recording. So it’s been really hard work but very rewarding,” she says.

The singer has chosen her favourite 14 tracks, which include Amazing Grace – “but it’s my take on the song, nothing overcomplicated” – among “chill-out” numbers. “The album is the story of who I am and where I come from. At the moment the title of the album is Beverley Trotman Voice Of Hope,” she explains.

The performer is 40 this year and admits she’s not into big parties and will be looking to sneak off for a small family visit to Paris, where she spent her tenth wedding anniversary.

More importantly she confesses to having the musical bug and will be auditioning for more after finding she loves being on stage.

“I’m happy for the kids to get on with most of the dancing in Fame but, just at the end, in the finale, everyone is singing and dancing. I’ve got good rhythm so I just about get away with it,” she laughs.