Wagner Discusses Louis Walsh Feud, Pet Lion, and Putin’s Death Threats – 15 Years Since His X Factor Fame

It’s been 15 years since Wagner burst onto screens in series seven of The X Factor. 

The moustachioed Brazilian with his distinctive thick accent, long locks that would whip around around the stage, and a passion for percussion, became an instant fan favourite, with millions tuning in every week to see what he would do next. 

Love him or hate him, no one could turn away when he belted out his rendition of She Bangs / Love Shack, but sadly his X Factor journey came to an end when he was booted out in the quarter-finals in a double elimination with Katie Waissel. 

While it’s been more than a decade since he starred on the show, Wagner’s legacy lives on and the Mail’s offices are abuzz when he comes in. 

One of my colleagues is keen to get a picture because she dressed up as him for a fancy dress party. Another wants a video message because she used to have Wagner as her Facebook profile photo. 

Indeed, I too am intrigued to meet the man behind the bongos. And I can now say that in real life, he is exactly the same eccentric and chaotic star the nation fell in love with on screen. 

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He’s an hour late because ‘the train doors closed in my face!’ he exclaims at me. He’s upset about his journey too, because there was nowhere to sit on the train. He’s also spent the morning on the phone with his bank disputing an electricity bill charge. 

So it takes some time to settle him down. 

Once inside the studio, he’s more than happy to reminisce about his glory days on The X Factor but admits he hasn’t kept in touch with any of his fellow contestants, which included the likes of Katie Waissel, Cher Lloyd and One Direction. 

‘We were not friends before we were on The X Factor,’ Wagner, 69, muses. ‘We became acquaintances, perhaps friends, but we have different lives and everybody followed their own path.’

Surely though he’s had some contact with Louis Walsh – his mentor on the show – who famously had a fiery relationship with the star. 

Initially Louis dumped Wagner at Judges’ Houses; then brought him back as a wildcard; refused to learn how to pronounce his name; then voted against him in the sing-off, ultimately sending him home. 

‘The judges were actors’, Wagner insists. ‘Everything is planned in advance and my contact with Louis was just the for cameras. 

‘So yeah, I never had much contact with Louis, but I must say he was pleasant every time I met him.’

That must explain, I muse, why Louis kept mispronouncing his name, saying it like Wag-nah rather than the correct Vawg-ner. 

Not the case, Wagner reveals. 

‘It was a joke that Louis agreed with me!’ he explains. ‘He said “I’m gonna call you Wagner all the time and you’re gonna say Louis, my name is Vawg-ner.”

‘That was fun and it was Louis’s idea. It was smart.’

Another story that created headlines when he was on the show, was the news that he once owned a pet lion. 

It was said that Wagner, who now lives in West Midlands, owned the creature back in his native Brazil. 

A throwback picture of the star wearing swimming trunks while holding the big cat’s tail on a beach went viral. 

Now, however, Wagner admits the lion wasn’t actually his. 

‘It belonged to a lady friend,’ he explains. ‘But now I don’t have any pride in it anymore. 

‘Years later I came to the conclusion that for my lady friend to have the lion cub that meant that poachers must have killed his mother.

‘So before I used to be proud but now I’m not proud anymore.’

With the topic of poachers threatening to bring down the atmosphere, I’m keen to move subject of conversation onto something more light-hearted. 

So, I ask, whatever happened to his OnlyFans business? 

Wagner sent the internet into meltdown in 2023 when he announced he would be joining the X-rated subscription site and charging £8 a month for racy content with ‘nothing off limits’.

Yet after shocking fans with a near nude snap to promote his work, ‘Daddy Wagner’ as he called himself in his bio, shut down the account after just four stunts. 

‘That was just a publicity stunt,’ he admits. ‘I was never fully naked there. I always had my bits covered.’ 

Another publicity stunt, he confesses, was his claims that he feared being assassinated by the Kremlin. 

In 2023 he shared his fears he will be assassinated after getting death threats from people confusing him with the Russian mercenary group with the same name.

Wagner said ever since the Wagner mercenary group launched its assault on Moscow, he had received messages threatening to cut of his testicles and those of ‘his troops’.

He also said he thought the Kremlin was ‘hacking’ his website and mobile phone as he had noticed ‘changes’ on his devices.

But the singer added he was ‘ready for them’ and he would use his ‘black belt in karate’ to ‘take on and defeat any Russian assassins’. 

‘It was a silly thing… a joke’, he reveals. ‘Putin knows very well damn well who who the real Wagner was… that was only gibberish.’

For now, Wagner is writing a sitcom about a Brazilian man who accidentally books himself in to see a prostitute rather than a physiotherapist – with chaos ensuing.  

He hasn’t abandoned music, however, and is the frontman of Kings With Wings: The Wagner Rock Band – a name he says is inspired by his love of birdwatching. 

‘I got lots of bookings but I felt so awkward singing She Bangs, because my God, that is a stupid song but people love it,’ he explains. 

‘I sang She Bangs wherever I went. But with the band I’m having my own repertoire. I’m singing great songs, Jumping Jack Flash, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley… 

‘And there’s nothing like singing with musicians instead of singing to backing tracks.’

So while The X Factor itself may now be a distant memory, for Wagner and his bongos, his legacy lives on.