As the primetime princess everyone loves to love, Cheryl Cole could get away with just about anything these days – except, perhaps, miming on live TV. It seems that when the Girls Aloud star (and X Factor judge) performs her debut solo single, Fight for This Love, on The X-Factor this Saturday, her vocals will have been recorded earlier in the day, whereas the contestants are compelled to sing live. This suggests it's one rule for pop stars, another for the rest of us.
But does it matter? It does, a bit. There was a good deal of fuss a decade or so ago when it became evident that Britney Spears and Janet Jackson, et al, were miming at least part of their concerts, but neither are renowned as great vocalists. The whole point of people who got their break on TV talent shows – Cole, for instance – is that they're expected to be strong singers. So it may have been almost acceptable for Spears to lip-sync when she guested on The X Factor last year, but Cheryl Cole? Ahem.
A "source" told the Daily Mail yesterday that the decision was made in order to avoid a repeat of a "disastrous" live performance by Girls Aloud on the show last year, when they supposedly sang out of tune. (A check via YouTube confirms there were certainly a couple of wobbly moments.) Maybe, though, it's just that the multi-tasking that would be required for Cole to both carry out her judging job and belt out a tune would just be too much.
"What people sometimes forget is that Cheryl is only in Girls Aloud because in 2002 she sang live on Saturday-night television every weekend for two months," says Peter Robinson of Popjustice.com. "You might argue that in 2009, after 20 Top-10 singles and six platinum albums, she's earned her right to perform the whole song with a bucket on her head."
