Whitechapel mum Shirlena leaves X Factor judges gobsmacked
AS latest series of TV talent show the X Factor kicked off this weekend Whitechapel mum Shirlena Johnson emerged as the latest eccentric to leave the judges gobsmacked.
AS latest series of TV talent show the X Factor kicked off this weekend Whitechapel mum Shirlena Johnson emerged as the latest eccentric to leave the judges gobsmacked.
More than 12-and-a-half million people watched the 31-year-old’s loopy audition in which she performed a bonkers rendition of Duffy’s hit Mercy on Saturday’s show as her three-year-old daughter Mariah watched backstage with presenter Dermot O’Leary.
Bookies have given Shirlena odds of 250/1 after her audition, which has been viewed more than 36,000 online.
Leopard print-clad Shirlena, who scrapes by on benefits of �52 a week, admitted she forgot the song’s lyrics after shrieking, kicking, clawing and growling her way through her performance and later said she felt like she was posessed.
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In an interview on the front of today’s Sun newspaper she said: “It was really strange when I got on stage - I just forgot the words and I just decided to keep going.
“But I know that whenever I perform I end up doing something else, it’s like something else comes over me and I feel like I’m possessed. I’m definitely possessed with something.”
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Single mum Shirlena, who says she receives no help from Mariah’s dad, said she was determined to win the competition for her daughter.
She said: “If I won the X Factor it would change my life because I’m doing it for Mariah. I want to give her a better life, the life she deserves.”
She was voted through on Saturday by judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh but Cheryl Cole called the pair “mad”.
Simon told Shirlena: “It was like a musical exorcism. I have to say I love you - you’re completely crazy but I like that. You are fantastically nuts.”
Do You know Shirlena? Contact the news desk on ela.editorial@archant.co.uk with your stories.
