Union J

Union J
Contestant Profile
9
Category	Groups
Mentor	Louis Walsh
Placement	4/13
Gallery

Union J are a four-member English male pop vocal group consisting of members Josh Cuthbert, JJ Hamlet, Jaymi Hensley and George Shelley.

Initially rejected at bootcamp as soloist and group Triple J in Series 9 of The X Factor UK, they were put together as a group and were mentored by Louis Walsh.

Due to the eliminations of MK1 and District3, Union J were the only act left in their category. They were eliminated in the semi final, finishing in 4th place.

Performances

Episode	Theme	Song	Result
Judges' houses	Free choice	"Call Me Maybe"	Advanced
Week 1	Heroes night	"Don't Stop Me Now"	Safe
Week 2	Love and heartbreak	"Bleeding Love" / "Broken Strings"	Safe
Week 3	Club classics	"When Love Takes Over"	Safe
Week 4	Halloween	"Sweet Dreams"	Bottom Two
	Save Me songs	"Perfect"	Saved
Week 5	Number-ones	"Love Story"	Safe
Week 6	Best of British	"Fix You"	Bottom Two
	Save Me songs	"Set Fire to the Rain"	Saved
Week 7	Guilty pleasures	"Call Me Maybe"	Safe
Week 8: Quarter-Final	Songs by ABBA	"The Winner Takes It All"	Bottom Two
	Motown songs	"I'll Be There"
	Save Me songs	"Run"	Saved
Week 9: Semi-Final	Songs dedicated to people	"Beneath Your Beautiful"	Eliminated (4th)
	Songs to get you to the final	"I'm Already There"

Post The X Factor

They released 4 successive top 10 singles, even after being dropped by RCA after the first album peaked at 6th, following pop ballad "Carry You" and "Beautiful Life" penned by John Lillygreen, who would audition for X Factor in 2017. Once Union J joined Epic in 2014, those were followed up by Roy Stride penned "Tonight (We live Forever)", which made the top 10 but fell out of the top 70 the following week, and "You Got it All", penned by Nasri Atweh, who had a major hit with "Rude" the preceding summer, a well-liked pop ballad which climbed to the top of the charts after its performance on the show’s eleventh series, only to be narrowly beaten to number 1, and become the first ever song to not top the UK charts despite receiving most sales. Their second album didn't make the top 20 in spite of this success, and touring with Selena Gomez and the Vamps, and George Shelly left the band in early 2016, after being on I'm a Celeb and agreement with the band, Stereo Kicks member Casey Johnson briefly taking his place before him and Josh both left and Union J have released new music as a duo.

Trivia

• During the live shows, Union J are the only act to survive the final showdown without the result going to deadlock.
• George was previously a member of the band, Only The Young who also was mentored by Louis Walsh in 2014 with Only The Young advancing to Week 7 and finishing in seventh place.