Comeback for X Factor act after Frankie Cocozza nosedives

AMELIA Lily, the teenage singing wannabe rejected in the first live X Factor show, was thrust back into the limelight last night after winning a public vote to raise money for wounded soldiers.

The candy-floss-haired 16-year-old was chosen over James Michael, Jonjo Kerr and Essex girl double act 2 Shoes to replace Frankie Cocozza, who was kicked off the show on Tuesday.

“I have been so emotional backstage – thank you to everyone who voted for me,” she said, before launching into Queen’s The Show Must Go On.

But the chance of fame for Lily – who polled 48 per cent of calls – could be shortlived with the possibility of being axed from the show tonight.

The four acts had never faced a public vote before – instead their own mentors were forced to choose who they should sacrifice in a surprise twist at the start of the series.

Lily’s lucky break came after Cocozza, 18, boasted of using cocaine, which ITV programme bosses said broke the rules for contestants on the show. Profits from the viewers’ telephone vote, amounting to at least 22p per call, will go to Help For Heroes, the charity for wounded armed forces personnel.

Cocozza returned to his Brighton home on Wednesday after admitting his life had gone “out of control” during the series.

“I’d like to apologise to Gary [Barlow], my fellow contestants and everyone who has voted for me, but, as of today, I will no longer be in the X Factor,” he said.

“My life during the show has gone out of control and my behaviour off stage has overstepped the rules of the competition.”

In an interview screened on spin-off show Xtra Factor last night, Cocozza said: “From my first audition I walked out on stage and got my bum out and had seven girls tattooed on it. And people are saying, ‘he’s not a good role model’, but they should have known that from the start.

“I’ve realised that I was starting to be a role model and, yeah, I feel bad about that now. Hopefully one day maybe people will look up to me in a good way. Can’t really see it happening, but who knows.”

Meanwhile, 16-year-old contestant Janet Devlin said she had mixed feelings about an axed act returning. “We’ve been working for, I don’t know, six, five weeks – five more weeks than they have.”

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