POP Idol finalist Brian Ormond is pals with Westlife’s Bryan McFadden, The Sun can reveal.

Dubliner Brian was told on Saturday by pop mogul Simon Cowell, who set up Westlife: “I could sell a million records with you.”

Earlier the 24-year-old pub singer, who got 16.8 per cent of the votes, practised for the show at ITV’s Teddington Studios. And star Bryan, appearing on daytime show Des and Mel, popped in to see him.

Bryan said: “We know each other through the Dublin music scene and just growing up together. We were always going for the same auditions.”