Michael Bublé sings / mimes Hollywood on The X Factor! (VIDEO)
Michael Bublé returned to the X Factor stage tonight and sang his newest single ‘Hollywood’.
The Canadian heartthrob is a favourite on the ITV show, having previously guest mentored the hopefuls during last year’s big Band Week, performed a duet with Stacey Solomon on the 2009 final and performed on the 2007 semi final.
Tonight Michael looked suave and sexy and he wore his trademark smart suit. His new song was catchy but it was pretty obvious that he mimed and didn’t sing live. This sort of upsets us when it happens week after week. If a group of new performers have to perform live and sing songs that are completely out of their comfort zone, surely a seasoned singer like Bublé can at least croon to us in person…
Leave all your Bublé related comments and musings below.
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Omg, he definitely sung live, hes amazingggg! and dudes, hes too good too have mimed so shove that in yer pipe and smoke it :@
Suggest you go to specsavers. Not only did he mime but he did it very badly which is probably why he looked so uncomfortable with Dermot afterwards
Actually, you need to go to specsavers because if you play the original single at the same time as his performance on X factor you can tell the difference.!
The man simply does not need to mime .. you angry little blogger! Get a life, or maybe attend a Michael Buble concert and eat some of those words.
Clearly you know nothing of this man’s ability or about mike control.
If you listen when he sings close to the mike, there is the tell tale “paaa” popping noises every time he sings a word with a “P” at the beginning. Also Buble voice is very controlled normally but he hit a couple of notes early on that were not quite there. “rock star” was a touch off.
The mike control clearly meant that his voice was increased and decreased in volume relative to the position of the mike, and this too he got wrong on several occasions with either too much movement or not enough (hence the “p” problem).
So before you start mouthing off about miming learn your craft, watch more carefully and listen. THIS WAS LIVE. He was brilliant as per usual but a long way from his normal recorded and absolute perfect best, as anyone listening to the single version will immediately realize. GGGGRRRR!!!!
Er…Danny, you can’t even spell mic. I’ve been a professional sound engineer for 15 years now. He was miming. There is not even a doubt in my mind. I’m not putting the man down, miming was probably required due to the technical constraints of producing a live show, but whatever the reason……he mimed!
So OBVIOUSLY mimed, and he almost flaunted the fact. the microphone was no where near his mouth a ot of the time. Poor.
NO he didnt mime you losers who say he did, have so not seen him live he is amazing!!! and just because he holds it away just means he is so good he dont need to hold it close to hide his mouth!! he sing freaking without a mircophone at his concert for the last song and it was AMAZING!!! YOU need to get your facts right!!!!
He can’t even mime well. At least he had the decency to look sheepish when Dermot asked if this was the first time he had sang this single live… I wonder how much Simon was paid to have Buble on the show….hhmmmm
Most blatant piece of miming since Nirvana on top of the pops, so i take it he was making a point. Maybe he wanted to sing live but the producers wouldnt let him so he thought sod this!
He was singing… Backup singers were singing too. I was in the audience!
he didn’t mime at all. if you watched the show, it was out of sync abit and michael always holds his microphone far away. you could hear his breathing aswell. it was clearly live..buble always sings live.
Maybe we’ve lost a bygone era, where ‘mike technique’ is so rare and unknown and we’re so used to seeing singers virtually swallowing their mike’s that we can’t even recognise the simplest over mike techs to prevent distortion on pitches and power. Check out the amazing singers of ‘yore’, Sinatra, Davis Jr, Bennett, Munro etc and you’ll see the ‘craft’. As someone said above, this is how he sings live. Its a lost art, it would seem. Sad.
He did “NOT” mime, he normally sings with the mike that far away from him. you dont have to have the mike against your lips to sing.
Im a singer who uses this song in my act. Its obvious it was live, as it was not the same as the recored. His vocal weakened as the mic moved out of range, he was breathy in parts, and his improvisations between verses were original. Check out the official video on his web site for proof of what im saying. THEN F…..G APOLOGISE, for being wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is what happens with a distrusting public, weened on a diet of pitchy, off-key, wobbly vocals (obviously referring to x-factor, and I don’t mean everyone on it!) They hear pitch perfect, they scream ‘fake’!
(
Definitely live, those of you who said it wasn’t need to get your ears cleaned out and listen again. I’ve seen Michael live and he is a fantastic singer who has a strong voice and can sing accapella to a whole arena without a mic!. Also if you compare this to the recorded Hollywood single, you’ll notice the difference!
For those of you claiming he is singing live, check out the video at 3.31. I rest my case!
I’ve seen him live and the guy does not mime he always has the mic like that. He’s got a powerful voice and it’s as simple as that.
Right dont get me wrong i think that buble is an amazing singer tbh however tonight i do believe he mimed :/…… just to bring to peoples attention the microphone being used looks to be a standard wireless cardiod microphone to which has a very limited range eg. distance away from mouth to which will be picked up clearly…. and at times during his performance the microphone was quite a distance from his mouth (at one point he wasnt even looking in the same direction as the mic) yet the vocals seemed to stay at exactly the same strength…. how is this possible…. its not… unless it was pre recorded and edited special for that performance
You mean 3.31, the bit where he goes ‘who-oaa’, projecting? Have you read what’s been said? He does that, moves the mike away when powering etc so there is no distortion. If you actually google ‘mike techniques’ you will see that the sound radiates from mouth ‘and CHEST’ which is why many strong live singers hover the mike around that region.
LOL i just saw the performance, those of you who said he mimed are so dumb man, he obviously didnt, thats the way he performs, and ever go listen to the studio version of Hollywood, its totally different
a
p.s. Should have added, it’s all about the diaphragm. Maybe read up a bit about singing lessons, microphones etc. As I mentioned before, seems it’s a dying art, but used to be prevalent (and yes, the mouth can be facing a different way to achieve the affect wanted, which it did).
People, remember this is a televised performance we are watching so regardless of how well he can project his voice it doesn’t work on TV. Don’t agree? Press ctrl + w
You do realise that there is a live audience tho’, yes? When singing live, with a mike, he’s not going to change the technique he normally uses.. *scratches chin*
You do realise that I am right and you are not.
Peace out xx
The reason that he holds the mic away when he sings is because his voice is to powerful, he could break the mic if its to close when his voice rises.
Tom jones, christina aguilera and meria cary have to do the same thing.
It sounds different from the studio version because it was pre-recorded before the show. As they do with most acts.
It’s sad when people have no idea what mic technique means. You ask why the volume of his vocal remains consistent throughout the song? Mic technique. Michael Buble does not have to lip-sync (unless he’s forced too… Which would just be dumb).
He clearly mimed to a pre-recorded track. He also used auto-tune on ‘an audience with micheal buble’. Face it, he’s just a money making product just there to make the masses (public) buy his music. Capitalist Propergander.
SB you obviously don’t have singing lessons. my singing teacher says you don’t need a mic to project, and so what if it’s on tv? still a live performance, just being filmed that’s all! and it does have everything to do with the diaphram technique, buble’s voice is simply too powerful to have the mic near his mouth the whole time, a guy in my class moves away from the mic whenever he tries to reach a higher note
It allo depends on the Microphone. A Shure SM58 (industry standard has to be sung closely to as otherwise it makes the sound thinner. A ShureSM87 (which the backing singers are ‘using’ can pick up soundaround a wider area. It looks like Michael is using a Sennheiser/neumann microphone which acts a little like the SM87 but is a far better micophone. I’m not sure whether he is miming or not. The sound feels a little too consistent, and no matter what mic technique you have, there will be variants in live performance when moving the microphone around. I’m just watching the YTube vid though and wouldn’t want to judge on that as Youtube vids tend to be out of sync in any case
your right it was a senheiser mic. and actually one the best on the market for long range pick up. these mics are so clear the clarity is amzaing.
my husband always used the SMbeta58 for many years professionally he then upgraded to the 87 until he borrowed a friends’ sennheiser on a charity gig (the battery light in his beta lit up just as he was about to go on so he grabbed the sennheiser for safety …..and…. the difference in sound and clarity was astonishing. needless to say he traded the beta58 in, bought the skm2000 sennheiser and used the sm87 as his spare.
buble’s mic looked like a 2000 series with the supercardoid condensor head….cant be sure though.
I’ve worked as a sound engineer for +30 years, also I’m part time musician/singer and although it is possible this performance was mimed, I don’t believe it was. Here why I think so (A little technical background first):
In order to hear a vocalist properly, it is important that his/her voice “loudness” be properly balanced relative to the music. If not loud enough, we won’t hear what they’re singing and if too loud, the music will sound “thin” Although it may seem simple to adjust the singer’s volume to match the music, it is not because some singers sing with wide “dynamic range” (it’s the difference between their loudest voice and their softest voice) and depending on the type of music they sing along, their softest voice may be totally “buried” under the music. The “busiest” the music is, the harder it gets (i.e. music having many instruments playing together will burry soft voice passage more than if only a single guitar is playing) There’s a whole science about this phenomena (psychoacoustics)
They’re basically two ways to fix this dynamic range issue: 1-vocal technique 2-compressors/limiters (They can also be combined together if desired)
– The standard technique to produce consistent volume into a microphone is for the singer to back off from the mic when singing loudly and get closer to the mic when singing softly. This technique is mostly important when singing into sound systems that don’t uses compressor/limiters, such as in small live clubs. Otherwise,good singers (such as Bublé) will overload the sound system (produce distortion) when singing loudly. The sound engineer could also lower the mic volume to prevent overload but then the soft passages would be buried under the music
However, ALL professional sound systems used in TV/Recording studios (including XFactor’s) use comp/limiters and they allow singers not to worry too much about their microphone technique as they will prevent any sound overloads (even if they would scream their hearts out directly into the mics) What these comp/limiters also do is allow picking up sounds that are relatively very far from the singer (like when Bublé moves away from the mic) and make them sound almost as loud as if the singer was singing up-close.
What comp/limiters cannot do is to compensate for frequency response changes resulting from microphone position relative to the vocalist (typically, the more closer/in-line with the mic the singer is, the more “bassy” and “brighter” it will sound. The further away/off-axis it is the more “midrange” it will sound.
What tells me Bublé was singing live is anytime he turns is head away from the mic (such as when he shouts “woaaa”) If you hear closely, you will hear his voice loose “brightness” (or if you prefer “treble”, “highs”) and that is definite side-effect of singing off-axis to a directional mic.
But then I could be wrong, as anything is possible on the X-Factor (Auto-tune anyone?)
B.T.W., I.M.O. Sheryl Cole was using auto-tune. Bublé was not.
completely and utterly correct!!!!
that was not miming. without a shadow of a doubt.
i’v been around enough singers in my time(albeit on the smaller club circuits) doing his genre of music (which is by the way very relaxed compared to most others) with the mic resting on their belly and stil producing the same amazing quality (and volume for that matter) of LIVE sound as they do when they have the mic to their mouth.
its because they know how to use their vocal chords corectly and they KNOW their own sound – when acts perform on the XF they have their own PA set up, they use their own sound techs and they use their own mic’s…..all they literally do is jack their own system into the studio speakers.
Michael Buble did not and does not mime! Enough said!
I’m not inclined to think Michael Buble lip synchs but I think it was made blatantly obvious that he was on the x factor. I think part of the problem was that Cheryl was lip-synching so it would have seemed obvious to viewers if one artist had performed live.
Lol, cant believe some of the comments here, there is no way he was miming (whereas the group song at the beginning was definately mimed!!)
The dubbing was out for a big part of the programme last night so whether that contributed to it looking fake I dont know, but, it was obviously live, nothing like the record, jeeez some people are fickle!!
Its funny really, if an artist sings live they are crusified for being “awful” if they sing to a backing track because of the dance routine they are still crusified …. then along comes Mr Buble, just because he sang perfectely does not mean he lip synced, he is actually that talented and can project his voice. I have been to many of his concerts and he is word perfect on all of his songs
Regarding Artists that MIME…
There is a sure way to know if someone is miming… (well, in fact 2 ways)…
1. If the artist doesn’t say anything into the mic after the performance has ended (ie ‘thank you’)… which Michael CLEARLY did not do.
2. The loudness of the voice does not alter whist moving the mic away from the performer… which again this CLEARLY did not happen.
I know you die-hard fans want to believe that Michael was singing… but the evidence is there that he mimed.
As for Cheryl Cole, well, I think I she may have sung one line, half way through her performance… She was more concerned with her dancing. Disgusting when she is judging the contestants on their ability to sing live (don’t you think?)
I think think we all need a reality check here about what the X-Factor actually stands for… It is a SINGING competition, right? Well, evidently it’s NOT.
Does Simon Cowell and the producers of the X-Factor really think that the general public wants to see well established artists MIME on a singing talent show after all the contestants hand sang live?
All the X-Factor is doing is cheating the viewers (especially when we are told they are singing live!) and the artists, all they are doing is cheating the fans…
Sod all the dancing! Just sing live!
I think it’s the beginning of the end for X-Factor, unless they change the format.
A professional singer that proves if someone’s miming by whether they speak into the mic directly after performing??? I’m sorry but, haaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaa!! I’ll be kind and say then you’re clearly an untrained singer, as opposed to a fibber
Westlife anyone?? How many times do they mime their hearts out, and then the mic’s get turned on?! LOL.
p.s. If you really were a professional singer, you would know that your voice resonates through your diaphragm area, not just your mouth. It’s why the really good singers can ‘project’ and don’t damage their vocal chords. If you just use your mouth you’re singing from the throat = bad. Why not consult a view vocal coaches
If you’re a professional singer, I’m Cleopatra! lol…. thanks for the laugh….
Who said I was I professional singer? LOL
Glad I stirred some sort of reaction though ;o)
Ok, ok, to keep the peace, I will agree with you all… MB wasn’t miming and Cheryl Cole sang every note also.
Thanks all. ;o)
LOL ”a sure fire way to tell if someone is miming or not is if they dont say thank you at the end of their performance!” FGS!!
and as for altering the ‘loudness’ when the mic moves away? – what about the very end note then? when the volume of the word ‘dead’ lowered because he took a large step back and quite away from the mic …… it seemed to fade accordingly to me!.
on the first chorus when he sings ‘for desire’ you can hear the intake of breath and when he sings it on the second chorus the mic is quite close to his mouth where you can hear the slight rumble (muffle) because the condensor in the mic head cant pic it up quick enough to clarify it – basicaly his mic levels and effects are set for long range because that is his style.
if he gets too close and there is a slight muffling then THAT is one of the sure fire ways of PROVING its live. even on pre-recorded live vocals you wouldnt get that, it would be mastered out.so would the intake of breaths.
Haaaaaaaaaa! It just gets better! Who said you’re a professional singer?? Er, you did. Your name is ‘London (Professional singer)’. Did you forget you wrote that?
@ Debs, you are so right! These people have not seen a good singer in their life, so how could they know it’s common practice to move the mic away from the mouth when singing strongly in order to sound still good and not ruin your audience’s ears?
In fact, that’s exactly the proof that Cheryl Cole mimed! Whoever writes this blog should stop making judgments and just stick with telling the facts. He/she/they have obviously no idea about music!!! God, the X Factor ruined music!
IMO Cole only sang live in the middle and Buble appeared to mime although I appreciate what London Professional Singer says above Overall who who cares in the end it’s a TV show – I haven’t paid to see them whilst sat in my armchair. Also people sometimes miss the detail of what is being said during the show such as “TONIGHT, LIVE..IN THE STUDIO” ie not live on the TV feed etc (no live proclamations at all last night if I recall).
Of course MB is a great singer but is it worth all the set up etc for one song so the reason for potential mime might be down to this. Anyhoo what gets me is how the show has pulled people in to think this is a genuine competition. I watch it every week just to feed my cynicism as the whole thing is totally contrived. Genius though because I hate the show for its tears and “make or break” tosh but watch it every week and now I’m blogging. AAArrrrgggghhh!
forgot to add……I bet you all believe that the musicians were playing live too. Ha ha my five year old can pretend better on the trumpet.
Of course it’s live – given it’s different to the version on CD. Dont watch the video but listen to it and it’s obvious he’s singing live
Stephen, they can pre record a live version earlier in the day and then mime on the show – they don’t just whack a cd in when they need to mime you know. Btw, the contestant mime the opening song when they all do a piece too you know. That’s different the CD version too.
I couldnt give a monkeys whether Michael was miming or not. I’ve seen him live twice, when paying fans got to see him sing ALONE filling an arena. This show is a farce but enjoyable. And none of us are experts, but for the record, I am sure he WAS live. Brilliant singer too, so put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Well.. imo it was mime.. even tho you fans don’t want to admit it i think it was obvious.
On the other hand.. i think he was, somehow, forced to do it since he seemed pretty ashamed/bored after the performance.
Anyway i’m not a fan but i consider him a great singer and one of the few that produces decent music nowadays.
About cheryl.. oh well.. another marketing product that is making money for her and alot of people around her. It’s just the way it goes.
The question is not if he’s a great singer and he has performed in a genious way in the past, or if we ever seen a great singer performing live blabla.
Go watch some jeff buckley live performs (one of the best singers that walked the earth) and you will see how it sounds live.
At least there’s something good for the fans in all this.. The way he so badly mimed.. means he never does it so.. that’s a good point for the fans.
He wasn’t very well —-Got a rotten cold,,have some sympathy please xx
Thanks Mike P for the explanation, it’s spot on. Having seen Buble live a few times, he is a strong singer and expert user of diaphram and microphone technique, although like all todays artists he does take advantage of the available mod cons, i.e. compressors, limiters, pitch correctors, etc, even though he is that good a singer. Why does he need to use them then? Well, it’s a bit of a psychological issue that today’s artists struggle with and it’s mainly because the music industry is so competitive and fickle, that one or two duff performances or duff notes here and there can spell the end of your career, so they want to ensure that they sound spot on every time and consistently receive good press.
To the untrained eye it is difficult to tell if Buble was miming or not, I’m almost positive he wasn’t, but whether he was or not, ignore where his mic was in relation to his mouth because he sings from his diaphram and the mic will pick up the sound from almost anywhere in front of him.
I like Cheryl, but there is no doubting that she mimed her heart out. In all fairness to her, there was no other way around it with a dance routine as energetic as that and, unfortunately, I can guarantee that you will never ever see her sing a song live. She simply isn’t a good enough singer (with or without the equipment) and it would ruin her credibility, musically.
Cheryl sang live on radio ones live lounge and it was diabolical. lol
Michael was ill and given pills from the Doctor..
Whether he mimed or not it’s nobodies business because every Buble fan that has seen him live know that he puts 110% into his performances and has an incredible voice.
And if you went to his recent UK tour you will see how he ends his show.. infront of the closed curtains, singing to thousands of people without even a mic in a massive arena..
Michael never ever mimes, So, So what if he did ? What you going to do about it? Sue him.. PFFT
Have some sympathy, he took time out of his Holiday to be there!! He didn’t have to!!
SO GET A GRIP Cause I bet none of you could do what he does!!
if he was ill thats another reason as to why the mic levels would be so high and why he sung with the mic so far away
singers cant project as well as when they are fit and well so the mic levels compensate that fact.
they turn the levels and effects up so hey dont have to project more than is possible for them.
so clearly mimed. take a deep breath calm down open your eyes and watch from 3.30 till the end. he is a good singer no one is saying he is not but you never would get this debate if he was singing.
“..you would never get this debate if he was singing”
Well…. This isn’t the first time. His mic technique befuddles people quite often. I say often. What I mean to say is, when he performs on the X-factor. In-ter-est-iiinnnng…
Michael is ill at the moment. i heard him on bbc radio2 this morning and he has a bad cold. he always put 110% in all of his performance and never lets a crowd down. so what if he mimed once he must have been really ill to do so. Unlike cheryl cole who sings part of the song and mimes the parts that she cant.
It still sounds as though he was singing live though and he always pulls his michrophone away
I was working on the set all day. He was singing live. End of story.
Anyone listen to Radio 1′s breakfast show this morning?
Yes. It’s all written up here
http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/x-factor/x-factor-2010-michael-buble-insists-he-didnt-mime/
Just like to say, I was disappointed as I went in the living room specially to hear Michael sing – wouldn’t watch that show normally! I left pretty quickly, convinced he was miming. There’s been a lot of comments re. lack of understanding of mic technique a la Sinatra etc. I’ve been a fan of Frank Sinatra for many years, in fact I’ve seen him in concert twice and watched countless performances. He did indeed move the mic further away at times, mainly to achieve a quieter effect especially in ballads. However I’ve never seen him, or any other great singer, move the mic as far away as Michael did and maintain volume.
Still, everyone’s different, and if people swear he sang live then you have to believe them!
it seemed to me that he mimed to a pre-recorded track, that’s why it’s different to the studio version. fair enough if he had a cold. he did look *rather* sheepish after the performance, didn’t he?
He has said that he absolutely didn’t mime, that he was sick and that he ‘wasn’t in love with his vocal’.
It amazes me that some people would rather intimate that he’s liar, than admit they were wrong.
He is spot on when he says that people are so used to being fed crap and used to seeing microphones jammed in faces that they don’t recognise actual mic technique when they see it.
Hell, I grew up watching my parents on the live circuit, on much cheaper mics and sound systems than that used on the x-factor, and my mothers mic was frequently held around her diaphragm, with no dimming of sound.
*shakes head sadly*
Seems to me there’s a lot of patronising comments, not just from Michael Buble but also a lot of people on this site who think they’re the only ones to see a singer use a microphone properly.
Seeing as the miming accusations came because of how he uses a microphone, ummm…yes.
That’s why he answered in the way he did, and why so many people have been banging on about vocal training, mic technique, equipment, sound engineering etc. To explain to those that have said that you wouldn’t be able to hear him properly if the mic were held that far away, and the sound wouldn’t be consistent, why you would and it would be.
..and if he came across as patronising. Shame. It’s his reputation that’s being slurred. I think he has the right to be a bit ticked off.
Talk about missing the point…?!
No. Really didn’t. Not sure what you expect. So, if you’ve experienced vocal training, mic technique, know about vocal projection, equipment used etc you should keep quiet for fear of upsetting those who’d rather bang on about how far away his mic was? Rubbish his reputation? Ahhh, ok. Fine. Wouldn’t want to do that
)
An interesting debate indeed and why should it be needed at all for an artist of MB’s stature. There are some very well informed comments on this thread but none that explains why MB still managed on occasions to produce a vocal sound with his mouth closed. There isn’t a pro-audio microphone in production capable of achieving that feat. I suspect he was being truthful when he said he didn’t mime in that he sang over a pre-recorded track but I would bet heavily that the microphone wasn’t switched on.
I think Frank summed it up really well. It’s supposed to be a singing competition. But they get guests like Buble to sing along while pre-recorded tracks drown out their voices. It really is phoney. The weaker contestants normally have powerful backing singers drowning out their voices to disguise the fact they can’t sing. Yes, it’s entertaining, but ultimately it’s a cynical con.
It seems to me that not one Buble fanatic has bothered to try and explain how he managed to do what he did at 3.31, lol. The mic is at a fully outstretched arm’s length PLUS his body was ‘side-on’ and his mouth was facing in the opposite direction to the mike (which must have been over a metre away, anyway)!! I’ve heard talk of Buble singing through his diaphragm?? Looking again at 3.31…where exactly is Buble’s diaphragm?? He’s superhuman, isn’t he? LOL. But, judging by the comments from his fanatics on here, he’s clearly going to make even more millions from the gullibles in the future.
Oooh, and to be a bit more patronising. Professional singers don’t move their mics away to achieve a quieter effect (although the do use it to fade a song out occasionally). It’s mainly used to balance the volume and quality when they are powering a note. The mics used way back then would distort the sound and could also create feedback if they didn’t.
“Looking again at 3.31…where exactly is Buble’s diaphragm?? He’s superhuman, isn’t he? LOL. But, judging by the comments from his fanatics on here, he’s clearly going to make even more millions from the gullibles in the future.”
Well, he’s obviously fooled hundreds of thousands of ‘gullibles’ who heard him fill an arena (night after night) without the use of a mic. Hmmm, maybe he is superhuman!
Or maybe he has secret microphones secreted around his personage… 
/
“There are some very well informed comments on this thread but none that explains why MB still managed on occasions to produce a vocal sound with his mouth closed.”
Actually, Frank, there have been explanations for this. A lot of people, on both nights of that weekend were complaining about the audio being out of sync on the live shows (by the time it was put on Youtube it had been corrected, certainly on the official one).
In Buble’s interview after his performance, he was out of sync there too, and it was noted at the time. That would certainly explain why his mouth movements did not match.