from the judges. In week five of the live show stages, Vickers did not perform due to a bout of laryngitis. She had wanted to perform the Mariah Carey song "Always Be My Baby", but her doctor advised her not to, saying Vickers could do permanent damage to her vocal cords. This was the first time on the show that the producers had excused any act from performing. In week six, Vickers returned to the programme performing Coldplay's "Yellow", which received a negative reaction from the judges; Dannii Minogue commented that she didn’t "love the song choice", while Cowell suggested Vickers was still not well enough to perform. In week seven, Vickers performed Take That's "Patience" commenting that she now felt 100%. In the semi-final of the competition, Vickers performed Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" as her first song and received positive comments from the judges, including Cheryl Cole's comment that "she had got that sparkle back". Vickers followed this with Dido's "White Flag" but was voted out of the competition. She performed a reprise of "White Flag", where her fellow singers joined her on stage in a memorably emotional moment. She achieved fourth place overall. Following the end of the series, she went on tour with the rest of the final eight contestants on The X Factor Live tour between February and March 2009. 2009–2010: Record deal and Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree Vickers signed to Sony Music's RCA Records. She began work on her debut album in January 2009, commenting that it would not be rushed and that it would be "Diana style". She worked with Cathy Dennis, Eg White, Nerina Pallot, Ellie Goulding, Guy Sigsworth, Chris Braide, Savan Kotecha, Starsmith, Patrick Wolf, and Dev Hynes. In March 2010, Vickers' first leg of the Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree Tour took place, followed by a second leg in May 2010 to coincide with the release of her debut album, Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree, which charted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. Songs from the Tainted Cherry Tree has since been certified gold by the BPI for sales of 100,000 copies. Vickers' debut single, "Once", was written by Cathy Dennis and Eg White and produced by Mike Spencer. The track was released in the United Kingdom in April 2010 and playlisted on Radio 1, where Vickers performed an acoustic version of "Once" and a cover