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Five After Midnight struggle on The X Factor amid internal conflict and criticism

The pressure of the competition is getting too much...

Oh dear. It appears the pressure of The X Factor is beginning to take its toll on one act in particular.

Boy band Five After Midnight didn’t have a great night during the Diva show, with Simon Cowell heavily criticising their performance of Valerie, the song made famous by Amy Winehouse.

5 After Midnight get the Audience moving  | Live Shows Week 3 | The X Factor UK 2016

He said: “I’m a fan, you know that. I think your first two weeks have been incredible, I’m going to be honest with you guys. This was terrible. It was absolutely terrible. It was like a rehearsal.”

But there are, apparently, deeper problems within the act.

It seems there is already in-fighting among the trio – which inevitably puts a question mark over whether they will even survive much longer as a group.

In a pre-recorded clip featured during last night’s show, choreographer Brian Friedman said: “They are not agreeing, they’re standing around.

“And I don’t know how you would come together for something when you aren’t even talking. They’re eating up my time.”

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The hopefuls were then shown openly taking swipes at one another.

And the three lads – Kieran Alleyne, Jordan Lee, and Nathan Lewis – basically admitted to conflict within the group, when their mentor Louis Walsh asked how they were getting on with rehearsals.

Kieran said: “It’s just like real brothers, sometimes you all hate each other and sometimes you love each other. You’re literally like ‘give me my space, please people.'”

Nathan added: “Having to work with each other, be at home with each other as well, there’s a lot of pressure.”

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Louis reassured them they’re doing “amazingly good” and assured them pressures within a band were normal.

But will they be able to contain their frustrations for the sake of the competition?


Kaggie Hyland
Editor-in-Chief