Entertainment

YOUNG IDOL A SURE BET

WHEN Simon says: “She is by far the most talented youngster I’ve ever heard,” you listen.

Cowell, the viceroy of voice, was speaking of Faryl Smith, the 13-year-old English mezzo-soprano who was a finalist last year on his judging gig across the Atlantic, “Britain’s Got Talent.”

The pretty Smith was a favorite to win the singing competition, but didn’t. Instead, she and her family

parlayed her instant TV celebrity into the most lucrative recording contract ever signed by a British schoolgirl — $3.3 million.

Her self-titled debut releases in the States a week from

today, and she’s previewing it tomorrow on TV.

Speaking to The Post from her family’s home in Kettering, England, Miss Smith recalls how her mother predicted her rise to stardom as a singer.

“I’d always watched [Simon Cowell] on ‘American Idol,’ ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘The X Factor,’ and my mum would tell me, ‘You’ll be singing in front of him one day.’ I thought she was joking,” the perky teen says.

“When that day came, I was so nervous and scared — because you never know what he’s going to say.”

Pretty much everyone who saw that debut TV performance agreed with what Cowell said when he declared “that was the best audition I’ve heard in years.”

Faryl is as fond of Cowell as he is of her.

“Simon is actually really lovely. Everyone thinks he’s really nasty, but I think he just tells the truth. He’s been so nice to me and my family as well,” she says.

Even though she came in a distant fourth place in the show, Cowell’s support of the singer has not faltered.

“When she opens her mouth, her voice is just incredible,” he says. So incredible that Cowell arranged for Smith to receive free singing lessons from the UK’s leading vocal coach, Yvie Burnett. Burnett previously coached 2007 “Britain’s Got Talent” winner Paul Potts and Leona Lewis, the 2006 winner of “The X Factor.”

While she’s gotten star treatment from some of the most influential voices in music, Faryl remains modest.

“I don’t really see myself as a celebrity,” she says.

“But if I am, I think I can handle it. At the end of the day, I just go home and get back to normal with my family.”

What’s normal?

Faryl goes to Southfield School for Girls in her hometown, she loves to play soccer — “I play defense, right-back, I’m a strong one” — and hang out with her pals.

Like Britian’s other talent, 47-year-old Susan Boyle, Faryl has never been kissed.

“I haven’t even got a boyfriend,” she says.

That’s probably a relief to her dad, Tony Smith, who oversees his daughter’s career.

“Mum travels with me when she can, but mainly my dad is my chaperone,” says the 13-year-old.

“He doesn’t have a lot of rules for me. But he’s there to watch out for me because people in the music business can do a lot of things to you if you don’t watch out.”

Faryl is a normal teen in her musical tastes — but with a twist.

“It might sound odd,” she says. “I listen to a lot of pop music because I’m a teenager — but I don’t like singing pop. And I don’t like listening to classical, but I like to sing it.”

That’s clear from her debut album, which has already released in the UK. On that record she is stunning on “Ave Maria,” “Calon Lan,” “Amazing Grace” and Brahms’ “Lullaby.” The album makes Faryl the youngest female artist to post a top 10 album in Britain in more than 30 years.

The speed of her success isn’t lost on this kid. “I’m just starting over here. I can’t believe I’m going to America already,” she says. To watch her make her US bow, tune in to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” tomorrow at 3 p.m. on NBC.

dan.aquilante@nypost.com