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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rutland
Posts: 25,358
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Rutland
Posts: 25,358
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X Factor star Diana Vickers is emotional wreck, says mum
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X Factor star Diana Vickers is emotional wreck, says mum It has been a long, painful and bumpy ride, but Diana Vickers has made it to tonight’s X Factor semi-final – you could say she has clawed her way there.
First the kooky singer got laryngitis and was allowed to skip a show – sparking outrage from the other contestants and cries of favouritism.
Then she got slated by Louis Walsh for failing to dance during her performances. She has also had to deal with rumours that she was cheating on her boyfriend with finalist Eoghan Quigg.
Her performance of Britney Spears’ I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman on last week’s show was slated by Simon Cowell, who told her: “It didn’t work.”
And to top it all, her habit of making claw-like gestures with her left hand as she sings has drawn derision. So far, 10,000 people have signed a Facebook petition mocking her odd habit.
No wonder the pressure is starting to take its toll on the fragile 17-year-old from Blackburn. And one person knows just how tough Diana is finding it – her mum.
Today Ann Vickers tells the Mirror how her youngest daughter has been phoning her in floods of tears from the X Factor house as the talent contest hits fever pitch.
Ann, 56, says: “Whenever Diana phones me in tears, I cry too. I hate knowing she’s upset and just want to give her a big hug.
“We text every day and phone every other day, but it’s been stressful at times.
“Last week, when Simon said he worried she wouldn’t make it to the final, I could see she was devastated.
“She’s still so young but she really listens to the judges and takes criticism to heart. I was in the audience, like I have been every week, and my heart sank and my stomach flipped to hear Simon’s words.
“I wanted to go to Diana straight away but I couldn’t see her until after the show, so that was really hard.
“It was worse when she was poorly. She was at the studio that Saturday because she really wanted to sing, but doctors said she would damage her voice if she did.
“So I took her back to the X Factor house, tucked her up in bed and sat with her throughout the night.”
Ann, her husband Eddie, a financial adviser, and their other daughter Charlotte, 21, have been travelling down from the family home in Accrington, Lancs, to see Diana mature under the spotlight on the hit ITV1 talent show.
And if she has found it hard taking criticism in front of millions of viewers, her mother has found the harsh words just as difficult to swallow.
“Diana’s only 17 and has to learn to take criticism,” says Ann, who works full-time at Marks & Spencer. “She was in bits after her first song last week but for her second song she came back fighting and won praise.
“Overall, being so far away from home for so long, and with the pressure of performing live on prime-time telly every Saturday, I think she’s coping really well.
“We’re all incredibly proud of her. To beat so many thousands to get to the semi-finals is amazing.
“It would be absolutely fantastic if she got to the final and won but I’m almost too scared to think too far ahead. I take each week as it comes.”
Ann reckons Diana won’t let the Facebook petition over her claw-like hand signals knock her confidence.
She says: “That’s just Diana and the way she naturally performs. She has always expressed herself with her hands but she isn’t aware she’s doing it. Silly things like
that won’t upset Diana – she has much more to concentrate on this week.
“I never look up the internet to see what people are saying about my daughter – I’m hopeless with computers.”
She also hits back at judge Louis for saying that Diana never attempts to dance. “Diana’s actually a very good dancer,” she says. “She took ballet and tap lessons between the ages of four and 11 and was a nice little dancer. She loves going dancing with her friends at the weekend. I think if she had an upbeat song and was asked to dance, she’d impress.”
Ann is equally dismissive of those rumours linking her daughter to fellow contestant Eoghan Quigg, 16. She insists: “Eoghan and Diana are just good friends. There aren’t many left in the X Factor house now and those two are of a similar age. Diana says he’s very supportive. He’s a lovely boy.”
She thinks the same of Diana’s boyfriend of seven months – Manchester University student Chris Jones, 18.
According to Ann the pair are very much still an item.
She says: “Chris is lovely boy, too. Each week he travels down to London to see Diana. They miss each other a lot.”
Recent stories that they had sex in his car have been painful for Ann to read.
“It’s hard for any mother to read something like that,” she says. “But I know it’s not true. Chris either gets a lift to London with me and Eddie, or he takes a couple
of Diana’s friends with him in his car. I doubt very much there’d be any time for the two of them to be alone.”
At home, Ann describes Diana daughter as a typical teenager – and certainly not the demanding diva that some X Factor house insiders claim she is. “Her bedroom could be a lot tidier,” admits Ann. “But she’s often too busy at school or working every other weekend at Marks & Spencer to tidy it properly.
She always has friends at the door and a very busy social life.
“Does she have a stroppy side? She’s a typical teenager but she’s no diva.”
She knew Diana was a star in the making when she saw her in Annie and the Sound of Music at her private all-girls Westholme School in Blackburn.
Ann says: “Her talent has always been there but I noticed it for the first time when I saw her in a school play. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, she really does have a lovely voice’.”
This weekend, she, Eddie and Charlotte will hear that lovely voice in action when they make their weekly 180-mile trip to London to see Diana perform live.
Ann says: “Last week was hard for Diana. Hopefully this week she will be stronger – and we won’t have any tears.”
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Source: Daily Mirror
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06-12-2008, 09:08 AM
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she seems like a good laugh to go out with.
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