X-Factor's Dami Im set to be first Asian-Australian pop star X Factor contestant Dami Im. Photo: Janie Barrett The X-Factor star Dami Im fears her shyness may cost her a career as a pop star - but says being on the TV show is helping her confidence. We went to Melbourne [last week] and so many fans were screaming my name. It was really strange, 'cause obviously I've never had that before in my life," she says. There are no shy pop stars in the world. I try to be a good performer for my fans and be really friendly and talk to everyone but I'm quite shy and it's difficult to talk to people I've never met. They already know me but I don't know them. I have to really try to open up in a short period of time and pretend I'm not shy. It doesn't come naturally. Dami Im is turning celebrity heads on The X-Factor. Photo: Kristjan Porm I always doubted myself if I could make it as a singer because of my personality. I thought even if I sing and people like it I'd never be able to make it big because of my personality, because I wouldn't be able to make good enough connections with people. But from [being on] X Factor, I feel like I'm gradually getting better at that and making friends every day. Im, who was born in South Korea and moved here with her family at eight, delivered her fifth-straight star performance on The X-Factor on Sunday, leaving plenty of experts and fans wondering if she could become our first Asian-Australian pop star. Rising star ... A photo of Dami Im in the John Paul College 2005 year book. Photo: Supplied I'll try as best as I can, hopefully I want to make great recordings with a big company. Im says if she does 'make it', she'd like to be a similar artist to British soul-pop singer Corrine Bailey Rae, who won a Grammy Award in 2012. Im, who taught herself to sing by recording herself copying her favourite artists, had a short career as a gospel singer in Korea and now works as a piano and voice coach in Brisbane. She is one of the strongest singers ever on an Australian reality show, but she admitted to Fairfax that she's feeling the pressure. "A lot of people now look to me to do well and not just my family, my church and the Korean community and the Asian community," Im, 24, says. Im, who went to high school at John Paul College on Brisbane's southside, sang Bridge over Troubled Waters by Simon and Garfunkel on The X-Factor on Sunday night, which has a theme of family favourites. Her father, Dong Eal Im, loved the duo's music. Jeff Fatt, who was the purple Wiggle for 21 years (and probably Australia's biggest selling Asian-Australian musician), thinks Im is "amazing." "It's a totally different scenario being a solo artist to being in a competition, but based on her personality and talent you'd have to rate her a big chance of cracking it," Fatt says. Im's impressive performances and her popularity - fan polls show she's easily the favourite to win - raise a curly question: why haven't there been more Asian-Australian superstars in our pop culture? Asian-Australians are prominent in so-called "higher-arts" like literature and dance but in mass culture, few are big stars - with the exceptions of celebrity chefs like Luke Nguyen, Kylie Kwong and Poh Ling Yeow and a smattering of comedians, such as Ahn Do and Benjamin Law. There have been plenty of talented Asian-Australians in popular bands - from Les Gock, guitarist with 1970s glam rockers Hush to Indonesian-born Dougy Mandagi from one of Australia's most successful current indie bands, The Temper Trap. Marty Rhone (born Karel Lawrence van Rhoon, also in Indonesia), hit number two on the singles charts with Denim & Lace - but that was in 1975. "His name went into the Australian vernacular," Fatt remembers. People would say 'pass me the Marty Rhone' - the telephone. But for whatever reason Asian-Australian artists are rarely seen in the top 10 on the charts in recent years. "I've covered music for the last 13 years and I've asked myself the same question," says Mix106.5 Breakfast host and former Channel V presenter Yumi Stynes, whose mother is Japanese. Our mass culture is a bit like politics - it's a dinosaur. You can't have someone on Neighbours who is just Asian. They've got to be a boat person. There has to be an explanation [for why there's an Asian character], and yet we all have Asian friends. [Our culture is] not so nimble, but it is catching up. Even though Im hasn't had much chart success yet - having not managed a No.1 on iTunes - Stynes believes Dami has the potential to become a household name. "I think it's about having someone who is so explosively good that people don't care what background they are, or that they are from a daggy TV show," Stynes says. Dami is good enough to transcend whatever reservations we might have. Stynes believes whatever Dami achieves, her presence has already been important. It's so exciting. I love young Aussie Asian girls turn on the telly and see someone doing so well who looks like them.