10:34 14 October 2009
Panel judge Cheryl Cole will reportedly mime her new solo single when she performs on The X Factor during Sunday night's results show.
The Girls Aloud singer is performing her solo single, 'Fight For This Love', but the performance will be recorded hours before the show goes to air and she will be miming, instead of singing, despite passing judgment over the new, nervous stars who have far less time to rehearse and must perform live on the night.
The Daily Mail reported that the decision was made following a disastrously out of tune Girls Aloud performance on The X Factor last October.
The group sang their number one single, 'The Promise', but struggled to stay in key during the solo portions of the song.
An insider told the newspaper: "The girls did not have a huge amount of time to rehearse, and while they looked beautiful in 1950s-style gold gowns, their vocals were terrible
"We even had to have a sound engineer in the director's gallery backstage standing over the controls trying to make them sound better, but to no avail.
"Cheryl is the break-out star of Girls Aloud and there are big plans for her. Nobody - neither on The X Factor nor her record label Polydor - wants to see her fail, which is why we thought it was better for Cheryl to mime her performance.
"But, of course, Cheryl will be heavily criticized for not singing live and then returning to her judge's chair to cast judgment on the hopefuls, who will have spent all week rehearsing and battling nerves."
Earlier this week an X Factor spokesman confirmed: "Cheryl will be recording her music performance earlier in the day with a live studio audience to ensure she can fully continue with her judging commitments on 'The X Factor' later that evening."
It is believed that Cole will not mime the entire song completely but will sing live in various parts over a pre-recorded track.