X Factor UK Season 9: Fifth Live Show

Theme: Number 1s

We officially lost Lucy Spraggan this morning. She was supposed to cover Rihanna’s “Umbrella” tonight. Union J are doing Taylor Swift’s “Love Story”. We will see the remaining 8 acts being mentored by No Doubt.


According to TV Guide, tonight’s show airs at 8:20pm BST (3:20pm EDT, 12:20pm PDT) on ITV1 (105min). The Xtra Factor airs at 10:05pm BST (60min) on ITV2.

Where to watch the show? If you are in the UK or can get UK IP, watch on ITV.com. Possible alternatives: TV Nutters, TVPC.com.

Please post working live feed links in the comments section below as you find them!


I have some problems with my feed. Ahh, Dermot is already giving out telephone numbers. Lucy Spraggan is out of the competition. Tulisa sounds heartbroken.

Rylan Clark is opening the show. My feed is still messed up.

1. Rylan Clark – “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” (ABBA) /”Hung Up” (Madonna)

Rylan has taken Nicole to his hometown Essex, which he describes as “the Hollywood of England”. They visit Amy Child’s beauty salon. I’m not 100%, but Amy is featured on a reality series “The Only Way Is Essex” (think Jersey Shore). I this Rylan is likely to join TOWIE after X Factor.
Rylan is doing destroying Madonna and ABBA this week. He is dressed as a giant red peacock (without the tail feathers). He sounds dreadful. Standard Rylan. He is the most entertaining act on the show by a mile. I hope he stays. That said, Rylan’s routines got a bit stale since Brian Friedman returned to the US.
Louis: It was camp, it was over the top, but it was brilliant and entertaining.
Tulisa: You stripped it back and then dropped it back in. You are genuine, entertaining person.
Gary: The vocals at the top weren’t bad at the top. I loved your shout-out to Lucy. I think this was your final performance on the X Factor. The joke is over.
Nicole: People underestimated you.

2. Union J – “Love Story” (Taylor Swift)

They are performing second again this week? HMM. My feed is still messed up. Anyway, the boys are trying to introduce each other to the viewers in their intro, but still, the only member I know is George Shelley. (The others are Triple J, I can’t tell them apart.) He is the one playing the guitar. The performance seems fine, but I’m not sure because my feed is still jumping. Boys can sing, they only need a bit of a spark. One Direction had it on XF, but they couldn’t sing that well. It’s a bit ironic how things turned around. Now we have a boyband that can sing, but there is still something missing.
Tulisa loved the song choice and Nicole loved the performance. Sadly I didn’t hear what Gary and Louis had to say. But we will have the videos up later.

3. Kye Sones – “You Get What You Give” (New Radicals)

He visited his brother at work this week.
Damn, I didn’t catch much from my feed. Kye performed and looked a bit corny. I also missed the comments, but it looks like he got positive feedback. Kye seems pleased. Watching the performance back, I think it was a bit middle-of-the-road. Pleasant performance, a few bad notes here and there. Overall, a bit forgettable. For you for me for you for me.
Nicole: We’re you inspired by Robbie Williams’ performance last week. I thought you did a good job.
Louis: I didn’t think this was as good as last week, but it was okay.
Tulisa: I think the song choice was a little safe, but I think you rocked it. Your energy and vocal performance turned it around.
Gary: Compliment from Louis, unbelievable. For you it’s all about finding your lane and we found your lane.

I’m sorry, I just can’t find a working feed. I’ve found the song list, so I will just post that and the videos when they become available.

4. James Arthur – “Don’t Speak” (No Doubt)

He gets a mentoring session with Gwen Stefani and co.
Comments after watching the video: Okay performance. Not as good as last weeks and there were some bad notes, but still okay. And, he is rapping about selling his soul? Brave.
Louis: I love the way you take a gamble every week. I think you are a real talent, you deserve a record week.
Tulisa: You pulled it back this week a bit.
Gary: Another brilliant performance.
Nicole: You bring so much authenticity to the show, to the stage. You blow my mind …

5. Ella Henderson – “Firework” (Katy Perry)

They show us Ella’s mentoring session with No Doubt. Again, I only see parts of Ella’s performance, but it looks like this is how Adele would cover “Firework”? She is pretty good, but certain parts pushed her vocals to the limits.
Gary: The song was a bit too high for you, but it was absolutely brilliant.
Nicole: I forgot I was on the X Factor.
Louis: I think you are a little recording artist in the making.
Tulisa: You create a moment.

6. District3 – “Dynamite” (Taio Cruz)
Boys met each other at school. Wow, big hair! They recorded Chris Brown’s “Crawl” and posted the video on YouTube before X Factor. They also have an original song, but more on that some other time. They get a mentoring session with No Doubt. They have choreography this week. I’m getting nervous for them… I can’t say how the performance went, I only got a few parts of it. Sorry.
Tulisa: Loves the boys but thinks Louis got it wrong this week.
Gary: Bland song choice.
Nicole: No baby no. Louis, you got it wrong with the song.
Louis: Thought it was fantastic.
Fangirls better start voting because the judges tore the boys apart.

7. Jahmene Douglas – “Listen” (Beyonce)

Jahmene took Nicole to Asda where he used to work. Nicole loves his old job? Nah, she seems a bit fake to me in this segment.
Woho, I was able to hear this performance in full! Ups, right before the end the feed stopped for a bit. But from what I’ve heard, Jahmene was on target. This was a good performance, it’s just that I don’t think he made the song his own. More or less he copied Beyonce, he hit all the notes.
Louis: That is how it’s done. You are going to be in the final.
Tulisa: I’m speechless.
Gary: Well done.
Nicole: That song was made for you to sing.

“No baby, no.” is trending on twitter.

8. Christopher Maloney – “All By Myself” (Eric Carmen)

The song choice makes my skin crawl well in advance. Cheese, here we come! Considering he has the pimp spot, it should be good? Oh, Gary and Chris will continue to ignore comments from the other three judges. Chris used to sing on cruise ships? That explains everything.
Chris stands on a platform. He sings beautifully. He hits all the notes. At least that’s something. The performance bores me to tears. I guess this is my punishment: The only performance I heard in full tonight was Christopher’s.
Nicole: I’m a sucker for that song.
Louis: You hit all the notes, but we are looking for an international recording star and that’s not you …
Tulisa: I loved the song choice and I loved your vocals …
Gary: You sing incredibly well, yo are so consistent …
Louis: Gary do you honestly think this guy can sell records internationally?

I think District3 are in trouble this week. Unless their fangirls vote them out of the bottom 2. Kye Sones could also be in trouble. Rylan’s time could be up, too.

And now my feed pretty much works perfectly. How typical.

Anyway, this season is frustrating. I think casting went totally wrong this year. Season 7 was great and I thought last year there were some questionable choices (Janet Devlin, for example), but this season’s cast seems hopeless.

The boybands are both pretty good for X Factor boyband standards, but Union J lacks that spark and District3 just don’t know what’s good for them.
Jahmene Douglas and Chris Maloney hit all the notes, but I don’t see them as viable recording artists. There is just nothing unique about them. So frustrating.
AdElla is basically X Factor’s answer to Adele and out of this bunch, she seems the most promising recording artist.
Kye Sones is trying to present himself as a cool pop/rock artist. The more he tries, the more he comes off as a poser. James Arthur doesn’t have that problem, but he gives me the Matt Cardle vibes. He is a WGWG like Matt, but he also raps. I cringe everytime when someone mentions “authenticity” and “credibility” in connection with X Factor and X Factor acts. Credible artists don’t sign up for reality talent shows.
Ryan Clark is a joke, but also the only exciting act this season. He is a trainwreck, but I look forward to his performance every week.

So this week’s theme was #1’s? Looking at my twitter feed, we didn’t hear that many #1 hits tonight. For example, the highest “Listen” charted was #3 in Italy.

About Mateja Praznik 1060 Articles
I recently graduated from the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In my free time I like to read books, watch TV and listen to music. I'm also a huge cat lover. I cover X Factor UK for MJsBigBlog.com.