Wagner Carrilho’s friends from the Black Country are enjoying a glitzy lifestyle, rubbing shoulders with pop and television stars galore as they cheer him on in the X Factor audience and join him at showbiz parties.

Vanessa Stokes, a veterinary nurse, of Buffery Road, Dudley, has been Wagner’s guest at The X Factor studios for the last two weekends. She used to be one of his karate pupils at the gym at The Village Hotel, Dudley, and at a gym he later ran in Old Hill.

“It’s very surreal – I’ve sat in Cheryl Cole’s judge’s chair and been photographed with Gok Wan, Paloma Faith and several of the other X Factor contestants,” said Vanessa, aged 35, who has known Wagner since 2004.

“Last weekend I thought I was just going to the show on Saturday but when I got there I was told I would also be needed to do some filming for the Xtra Factor on the Sunday.

“I was in a lovely black and white cocktail dress and I asked Gok Wan if he thought I could wear that again the next night. He said ‘no’ — so I went out and bought a new outfit, with a purple top, for the Sunday.”

Vanessa was accompanied by her husband, Jason, and vet Ian Fleming, from Rowley Regis, to the show last weekend.

She took along a colourful painting by her five-year-old son, Stevie, created to wish Wagner luck.

Other friends who have been invited to the show by Wagner include Mandy Dhaliwal, aged 26, who runs the Tasty Fish Bar, in Commonside, Pensnett, just a stone’s throw from his bungalow in Blewitt Street.

Mandy, who has tickets for the shows tomorrow and Sunday, said: “I’ve spoken to him and he’s happy with his song choice for this week’s show, although he cannot reveal what it is. Wagner’s an amazing person – he’s so friendly and genuine. He’s oblivious to the whole craze that’s going on about him.”

Before moving to Blewitt Street, Wagner lived in a terraced house in Park Road, Netherton, where he was also well known as a character in the area, dressed in his karate gear or shorts and singing in his house, his garden, the street – and even the local library. Joseph Cox, his next door neighbour in Park Road, helped him to carry items from his house for the move to Blewitt Street.

Joseph, aged 20, said: “He just kept singing all the time – mostly in Brazilian.”

Joseph’s mother Chloe Cox described Wagner as “exuberant” and said he could often be heard singing in the garden. Meanwhile, a group of Brazilian businesspeople being entertained by Stourbridge Rotary Club are rooting for their countryman on the X Factor.

Five Brazilians – journalist Marcela Bastos, management consultant Adauto Lemos, IT specialist Diego Nunes, lawyer Sheila Ribero and human resources specialist Gizela Moraes – are on a group study exchange to the Midlands and have been staying this week with members of Stourbridge Rotary Club.