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Music

Beyoncé and Alexandra Burke

Snot, sobs and "Sing It Girl!"

The X Factor largely trades in false promises about dreams, journeys and becoming a superstar when all the show really offers is a brief moment in the spotlight before you end up playing Prince Charming in a regional panto or, as Alexandra herself ended up doing, flogging watches on Argos TV.

But in this three minutes on the X Factor's December finale, you undeniably get to see a girl's dreams coming true - the brief journo going from an unknown schoolkid to singing with the biggest popstar in the world.

What's brilliant about this video is that it's not a staged meet-your-hero type affair. Burke spend most of the post-performance hyperventilating and covered in snot before she just collapses and buries her head in Beyoncé's bossom.

As Beyoncé has become more unobtainable and distant in the time since Alexandra won, this feels all the more poignant: the time when a girl from Islington covered her in mucus.