X-Factor singer withdraws over 'happy slapping' vid

Hit me baby one more time

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 2nd November 2007 17:11 GMT

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X-Factor finalist Emily Nakanda has withdrawn from the hit show after footage emerged of her attacking another girl in a "happy slapping" video.

Mobile phone footage showed 15-year-old Emily in school uniform holding her victim in a headlock and pulling her hair.The Sun reports that she said: "If it rips out I'm gonna get blood on my clothes." She then proceeded to crack her knuckles before charging at the other girl and wrestling her by the hair.

Another clip depicts Emily (AKA Lady Shiverz) threatening to use a knife to pluck a boy's eyes out. Both clips are said to have been circulating around Nakanda's friends and schoolmates in North Finchley, London. What provoked the outbursts is unclear.

However, students of pop psychology may care to note that Nakanda sang I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman, a song made famous by troubled chanteuse Britney Spears, on the gladiatorial warbling extravaganza last week.

"As a family we are heartbroken and are very disappointed with Emily's behaviour," Emily's mother Louis Friberg said, Sky News reports. "We feel that there is no choice but to withdraw Emily from the competition."

Nakanda was the youngest contestant ever to make the last 12 on the show. Judge Sharon Osbourne, who mentored Emily on the show, said: "I am deeply saddened by this whole situation."

The 15-year-old is the second finalist obliged to withdraw from the fourth season of the popular talent-hunting competition. Sisi Jghalef was turfed out of girl band Hope in September after it emerged that she'd failed to finish a community service order. ®

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