Cowell’s Vegas residency for talent show
Chico rushed to hospital as he has stroke Ayda left crying over emotional X Factor tribute
Singer was in 2005 X Factor FORMER X Factor contestant
Chico Slimani has suffered a stroke, aged 47.
The dad-of-two, famous for his hit It’s Chico Time, was rushed to hospital three days ago after falling ill on the way back from a gig.
His publicist said yesterday: “We can confirm Chico sadly suffered a stroke. This has been a shock to Chico, his wife and their children, also his close friends and family.”
The singer, real name Yousseph Slimani, came fifth on The X Factor in 2005. He went on to top the charts with novelty It’s Chico Time in 2006, before coming third on Dancing On Ice in 2012.
He is married to Daniyela, 44, and has daughter Lalla-khira, 12, and son Zacharia, eight.
Chico has admitted of X Factor: “I created a character. Yousseph is the man in me. Chico is the child — the caricature.” Famous strip in Sin City SIMON Cowell is to launch an America’s Got Talent residency in Las Vegas, reportedly netting him up to €11million annually.
The mogul is teaming up with investors to build his own theatre.
He will take on the likes of Celine Dion, whose lengthy residency is still running, and Lady Gaga, whose show starts in December.
High-profile stars such as Elton John, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez have also played a longrunning series of gigs in Sin City.
Simon, 58, said: “We are getting close to announcing that we are going to do a residency in Vegas. We are very close to doing a deal.
“A few years ago I wasn’t sure we should do it. Then we met with these guys [the partners] this year and they are very cool.
“They get it and we will build our own theatre. And that will happen in a year.” She wells up on screen
Ayda, centre, with half-sisters Oyku and Ilgi
Dad Haldun with Ayda, three SHE is the judge who is winning over The X Factor fans with her bubbly wit.
But Ayda Field has been hiding a secret pain – she still has not dealt with the sudden death of her once long-lost dad.
Viewers will see the actress break down on tonight’s show as contestant J-sol sings a song in memory of his mum Victoria. She passed away unexpectedly and that sparked Ayda, married to singer and fellow judge Robbie Williams, to tell of her agony in losing dad Haldun Evecan.
He died, at 68, of a heart attack in 2014 – just years after they had been reunited.
Ayda, 39, said: “I will never forget how the world swallowed me up on that day when I found out.”
Then speaking to the Mirror, the mum-of-three explained that J-sol’s self-penned song made her realise she had been avoiding her grief.
She said: “When he sang the first note, I was like, ‘Oh my God, here we go’.
“It touched me. I feel I needed to hear that song. I needed to feel some things I wasn’t ready to deal with. I was grateful.”
Ayda’s parents, film producer Gwen Field and Turkish advertising exec Haldun, split when she was three.
Haldun went to Istanbul, where he remarried and had daughters, Ilgi, 30, and Oyku, 26.
Ayda had no contact with him until she was 18, though Haldun said he fought a legal battle to see her.
At 26, she went to Turkey to see him, and phoned him before her California wedding to Robbie in 2010. Haldun later said: “I told her I didn’t give her much and certainly not as much love as I would have liked and that will haunt me.”
He had offered Ayda a second wedding in Turkey as he would not be at the first.
Though Ayda is now close with her halfsisters, the chance for that never happened.
In an added blow, she could not fly to his funeral as she was heavily pregnant with her second child Charlton Valentine.
Haldun did once talk of his angst at leaving Ayda after his marriage break-up.
He said: “I’ll never forget when we said farewell. She said ‘Dad, do not go’. I said to her, ‘My daughter, I will come back’. But unfortunately I came late.”
BRIT school product J-sol, from East London, also had an emotional effect on the other judges.
Louis Tomlinson, whose mum Johannah Deakin, 43, died from leukaemia in 2016, says: “Such a beautiful song that has touched us all on this panel.”
Simon Cowell said he still “talks every day” to mum Julie, 89, who died in 2015, and dad Eric, 81, who passed away in 1999. ■ The X Factor, ITV, tonight at 8.35pm
ON HEARING J-SOL SING
I needed to hear that song, to feel things I was not ready to deal with
AYDA FIELD
J Sol on show