Uptown Funk - they sang about 20% of it. You can tell very obviously when it's their voices and when it's the backing track as the few lines they sing solo sound completely different to the other vocal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwidQ0LEnHY

More singing in their second performance, particularly from the lad with the shortest hair, but the other two still mimed in parts over a backing vocal loud and rich enough to cover them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJBGiXUEyEI

Look I understand established guest acts at their own concerts will perform with a pre-recorded backing track of their own vocals, but a) this is a competition, these guys are still contestants and b) it's unfair for some of the contestants to get substantial vocal help from backing tracks and the like and not others. And even more unfair for the judges to pretend it isn't there, it isn't happening!

They werent miming.

They will be after X factor

Yep. Backing vocals were very... present but they were singing.

I don't know how they're allowed to get away with it without any comments about it.. They sound terrible when they're singing on their own and then most of the time they're singing (and visibly miming) along to an extremely loud backing vocal. And yet the judges give them so much love?

I like how one said at the focus group they were behind a double sided mirror.

Thats a one way mirror guys or you would just be looking at yourselves.

IMO they mimed the whole of both songs. Yes, there were some 'live' vocals, probably recorded earlier in the day when they were standing still on stage, and then mimed to in the later performance...

They weren't miming but they do have a loud backing track

They are style over substance - tame away the big production and they are pretty meh.

You can always tell you're doing well on the show when the critics start coming after you. Matt and 05:00 have been the star performers throughout this year.

The very beginning of Uptown Funk was mimed.

I don't rate them much, but they were singing live and, as others have already posted, they had a very heavy backing track and also backing singers, making them sound more powerful than they really are. Strip all that away and they have very weak voices vocally as a group.

Seriously? I must be totally missing something as I find Matt about as interesting as a Wet Weekend in Grimsby although he can sing competently which is more than be said for some of the others.

As for 5 past 12, they cannot sing, at all- In fact, they might be amongst some of the worst vocalists in a group we've ever seen on an X Factor Live Show(and we've had some shocking groups) Yet they're being given a bye for effectively miming through their performances and hiding behind staging, they never used to be allowed (I remember a big stink up when Katie Waissel used reverb on a song) The fact there is such a discrepancy between their live vocals (see individually) and the pre-recorded ones (see the beginning of Uptown Funk) it makes a bit of a mockery of the show for as long as it keeps up the singing competition pretence.

Credit should go to the backing track singers, they do more than 5AM every week.

You know those spoof vids on youtube where they play singers 'real voices', they are like that on the rare moments you hear them sing.

They are absolutely horrendous. I honestly don't see how they got anywhere near as far this, I am just baffled :/

I think they'll definitely be out tomorrow.

I don't think they are miming at all. Once again though, they are getting a much better production for the (recorded) backing track than anyone else is; that's to say you can hear the backing singers' deeper/multiple voices high-up in the mix, and that's kind-of cheating. I wouldn't say that if they were already established artists, but this is a competition trying to establish talent. However the talent we are hearing in relation to 5AM seems increasingly based around the studio engineers as the weeks go on.

They were in places and anyone who says they didn't use any fx or processing should go and get a new set of ears. There was all sorts on that track, amongst other things the vocals were obviously compressed.

As for exactly the same dance break that they have used for the last ........... weeks!

There was backing vocals that had effects on them for sure (maybe vocoder) and their voices did blend into that. Compression is pretty common and unproblematic. Do you know what compression is?

That's most likely why they strangely sang together in the right pitch. They're known for singing badly together and yet last night they strangely sounded good when singing together.

Not sure if they was miming but their version of uptown funk was total shite

Just watching this now on itv+1, they are currently singing sorry... its sooo obvious they are miming especially the beginning.

I like them. I enjoy their overall performance. I don't think their vocals are great though. What I don't really get though is that when they did their first audition I thought they sang really well together, so what's happened since then?

I'm not sure they were miming the whole thing but they definitely mimed some parts and the backing singers did the majority of the work on both songs for them, there was literally no change between how many voices we heard when 1 would stop "singing" while the other 2 continued.