Mark Ronson has revealed that he was "totally blindsided" by the decision to let X Factor finalist Fleur East perform his song Uptown Funk over a month before its scheduled release date. The songwriter has claimed that the first he heard about it was from Twitter, as Simon Cowell did not ask his permission to use the track before the show. Speaking to the Evening Standard, he said: "I had no idea she was going to perform it. I was totally blindsided and at first I was like, 'What?' "I saw it in my Twitter timeline – a friend tweeted it during the show. I haven't been in England so I haven't watched the show or anything. I was like, 'What does he mean? That's weird!' You think we'd have some kind of sign off on it."
Mark Ronson was "blindsided" by Fleur East's performance of Uptown Funk
Mark also says he feared the performance could have ruined his chances of success with the song, but after bringing the release forward by five weeks his version went straight to number one in the UK charts on Sunday. The 39-year-old said: "Then I kind of twigged – don't they put out the songs on X Factor on iTunes that night? That's when I just had this pit in my stomach… I was like, 'Man – I hope the label over there knows what they are doing! Because this girl's about to have a big hit with our song!' "I thought, oh man, this song we've spent six or seven months on is potentially going to be eclipsed by the other version – in the country I live in and [is] super important to me."
Fleur East performed Uptown Funk ahead of its scheduled January release
The track, which features Bruno Mars, is Mark's first number one single and he is pleased with the success of the track. "Everyone kind of ended up with what they want. I got to have the record out, X Factor, the girl, she had her moment ... It’s been a crazy week" he said. Mark is not the only celebrity surprised that the X Factor were allowed to use the track before it was released. Lily Allen criticised the decision to use the track and said it was a great example of "music industry corruption".