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.
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.
