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X Factor: Celebrity fans cry “fix” as EastEnders’ Jonny Labey shares stage with music legend

Actor played Paul Coker in BBC soap

By Nancy Brown

Viewers slammed X Factor: Celebrity as a “fix” as ex-EastEnder Jonny Labey shared the stage with music legend David Foster.

The former soap star, who played Ben Mitchell’s love interest Paul Coker, delivered a rousing performance of Feel It Still by Portugal. The Man.

Simon Cowell then asked multi-Grammy-winning producer David, who was in the audience and has worked with stars including Madonna, Michael Jackson and Chaka Khan, whether he had any advice.

Instead, to the amazement of Jonny, David joined him on stage and sat down at a piano.

He played along as the actor, who is a fan of swing songs, belted out Feeling Good, by Michael Buble, whose last album was produced by David.

Music producer legend David Foster joined Jonny on stage (Credit: ITV) 

Read more: X Factor: Celebrity viewers ‘concerned’ by Simon Cowell’s appearance

But, with Jonny knowing all the words and the whole routine seeming not as improvised as it may have been, several viewers doubted how genuine the moment was and took to Twitter to share their cynicism.

One posted: “#XFactor such a fix, as if he hadn’t already practiced it.”

Jonny performed Feeling Good with David (Credit: ITV)

Another wrote: “Lucky they had a spare piano on stage and he knew how to sing in time to the chords #fix.”

A third tweeted: “There just happens to be a piano right there.”

After their performance, David took the mic and chanted: “Vote for Jonny! Vote for Jonny! Vote for Jonny!”

Jonny told host Dermot O’Leary: “I’m literally trembling.”

The pair embraced after performing together (Credit: ITV))

Read more: X Factor: Celebrity viewers wowed by Wes Nelson’s musical talent

* X Factor: Celebrity continues on ITV next Saturday night

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor

Related Topics

The X Factor