Mum of Midland-born X Factor contestant Layla Manoochehri hits back
Oct 10 2008 By Emma McKinney
THE mum of Birmingham X Factor finalist Layla Manoochehri has hit out at bookies tipping the singer’s group Girl Band to be the first act kicked off the ITV talent show tonight.
Outraged Maria, 45, said her daughter, who grew up in Quinton but now lives in Henley-in-Arden near Solihull, was a natural born performer and had what it takes to win the show’s £1 million record deal prize.
“We’re obviously overjoyed at Layla and Girl Band making it down to the finals, but we’re struggling to cope with the negative press and the odds that they will be first to leave the show,” she said.
“I heard Chris Moyles criticising them on his BBC Radio One breakfast show and it hurt so much.
“I know I’m biased because she’s my flesh and blood, but I think Layla and Girl Band are so talented, they just need to be given a chance.
“They know this will be their most important week in X Factor and I think they will pull it off. They work very well under pressure.”
Hairdresser Maria, who is married to Layla’s Iranian father Javid, 51, who runs a cafe in Birmingham’s Bullring, said her 22-year-old daughter had shown she had talent from an early age.
She started dancing at the age of three and performed in her first professional production at the city’s Hippodrome Theatre aged four.
But it wasn’t until a family holiday in Tenerife when Layla was aged ten that the family had any idea she could sing.
“She asked if she could do karaoke and we couldn’t believe it when we heard her voice, we were blown away,” she said.
The Birmingham Mail revealed earlier this week how back in 2001 Layla was kicked off of talent show Pop Idol when her friends at Henley-in-Arden High School told producers that she had lied that she was 16 when in fact she was 15 and too young to enter the competition, which went on to make Will Young a superstar.
