<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"&amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s incredible, that someone so unforgettable, thinks that I am unforgettable too...&amp;quot; Wagner Fiuza-Carrilho bid the X Factor farewell on Sunday night with an emotional, heartstring-tugging rendition of Nat King Cole&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Unforgettable&amp;#039; and has left the show with a huge lion-shaped hole. With a twinkle in his eye and a knowing smile, Wagner stood proud at the weekend as the judges breathed a clearly visible sigh of relief that the Rio-via-Dudley singer&amp;#039;s run on the show had ended.  Did the mustachioed wonder ever complain, look gloomy, croak over a sore voice or whinge about being asked to perform ludicrously ill-fitting songs? Of course not. When Dannii Minogue, Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell took potshots at him from behind their desks and the Big Brother-esque studio audience booed and heckled his weekly victories, did he kick up a stink or get weepy? Don&amp;#039;t be silly! Wagner knew that he was playing a role in the show and that he wasn&amp;#039;t ever going to win the contest. However, he wasn&amp;#039;t going to be put off by a few laughs and ludicrous bongo solos, because this was his chance to share some TV limelight. After spending years singing in a chippy in Dudley, this was his chance play to 16 million viewers, and he wasn&amp;#039;t going to throw that away, even if it meant performing a Louis Walsh-created Ricky Martin/B52s mash-up. Thrown in as a wildcard act, the 54-year-old was probably expected to depart around week two or three along with the likes of Storm Lee and Diva Fever. His continuing presence on the show has drawn obvious comparisons with the likes of Jedward, Same Difference and Chico from previous years. However, Wagner always felt like more of an outsider than any of those acts. Katie Waissel felt more like this year&amp;#039;s Jedward, portrayed as the annoying brat at the auditions and bootcamp, controversially put through to the live shows and with a rival judge gunning for her exit (Louis Walsh with his &amp;quot;style over substance&amp;quot; comments). As with Jedward, it was probably expected that we&amp;#039;d eventually come around to supporting Waissel, either out of student irony contrariness, as a retaliation to the judges&amp;#039; favourites, or the realisation that she actually wasn&amp;#039;t that awful a person. However, Wagner threw a spanner in those works as he picked up votes from all quarters (Cowell haters, comedy fans, the majority of Dudley). And for a while nothing could stop him. Even though Louis Walsh could barely drum up enthusiasm for the ex-PE teacher, preferring to spend his time with pet project Tesco Mary, clearly hoping for a cut of her Mother&amp;#039;s Day album sales next year, Wagner reached the Top 8 and the X Factor tour without ever gracing the bottom two. The press unleashed stories about his private life and the younger whippersnapper contestants whinged about the the small fact that he wasn&amp;#039;t that great a singer. &amp;#039;Pah&amp;#039; and &amp;#039;Tsh&amp;#039; said viewers, who much preferred his unpredictable medleys and mash-ups, off-the-cuff religious outbursts and Mr T jewellery collection to the salt-of-the-earth, humble and oh-so-earnest identikit contestants that he was competing against. The ride had to end at some point, but as the reality TV cliche goes, at least he departed on a high. On Saturday, he tackled Radiohead&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Creep&amp;#039;, (featuring the line &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m a weirdo, what the hell am I doing here&amp;#039;) and somehow managed to transform it into a song of defiance rather than a cruel joke at his expense. He was even allowed the courtesy of a Survival Song, the aforementioned &amp;#039;Unforgettable&amp;#039;, allowing him to give his audience and fans one final dramatic Wagner-bow and gold-toothed grin. Thanks for the memories Wagner. We can&amp;#039;t wait to see you in the jungle in 2013. Leave your tributes and messages of goodwill to Wagner in the box below "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-factor/news/a290587/like-a-bat-out-of-hell-wagner-is-gone/>