Peter Andre used to get beaten up at school.

The 'Mysterious Girl' hitmaker, who moved to Australia from London when he was six years old, has admitted he was targeted by his fellow classmates because of his Greek-Italian background and would quite often come home with bruises and bloody scratches across his body.

He explained: ''There was no Greeks or Italians, just these blonde-haired beautiful-looking people [at school Down Under.] I was picked on. I got beaten up a lot.''

The 42-year-old singer turned to music to help him block out the negativity he was plagued with at school and used to dream of becoming a famous performer one day.

He told The Times newspaper: ''I would visualise myself being on stage in front of a sell-out crowd. I'd take all the little mirrors from around the house and set them up in the garage so I could see how I was performing and get better.''

But, despite shooting into the charts with his 1995 breakthrough single, Peter has admitted he doesn't have the greatest singing voice in the world.

He added: ''I'm no more talented than the guy next door. There are billions of singers who could out-perform me in a second. Well, not a billion but millions.

''I remember my brother Mike telling me loads of times, 'I love you man, but what makes you think you're going to make it? There are so many better musicians, dancers and performers out there, why do you think it's going to be you?' And I couldn't really give him an answer.''