X FACTOR stars G4 are still broke despite signing a multi--million- pound record deal.

The runners-up in the reality pop show were snapped up by the giant Sony BMG label after a fierce bidding war, resulting in their debut album G4 being released this week.

But despite the £2.4million contract, G4's Matt Stiff is still in debt to the student loan company to the tune of £10,000 .

X Factor contestants G4 have stormed to the top of the album charts.

The all-male vocal quartet reached number one with their medley of operatic versions of rock and pop classics.

Their album has sold more than 200,000 copies and is expected to go platinum by the end of next week.

The four singers, who used to be buskers in London, caught the imagination of millions of viewers last year when they appeared on ITV's the X Factor show.

Since the album was released last Monday, the group - made up of Jon Ansell, Matt Stiff, Michael Christie and Ben Thapa - have made a whistlestop tour of music stores across the country.

A spokesman for the group said: "The response has been incredible.

"The group have visited Edinburgh, Bristol and Birmingham and have been literally overwhelmed by thousands of fans."

The classically-trained singers piped rival male vocal group Il Divo to the coveted first place last night.

G4 will perform on next Friday's Top Of The Pops, and their double-A side single Bohemian Rhapsody/Everybody Hurts is released on March 14.

Ansell said of their chart success: "We're speechless. I don't think it has kicked-in yet.

"It's ridiculous to think that a group of friends from college have fun and set up a group and randomly telephone a TV show, and now we're number one.

"It's great that people have been buying the album for Mother's Day, and hopefully, on the sly, they're buying it for themselves too."

He also joked about his bank balance: "It hasn't changed a lot. We're not really rich or anything yet. There's no megabucks."