Simon Cowell called them an "unstoppable machine" but John and Edward were deadwood after being voted off X Factor.

The hyper-quiffed identical pop twins, known as Jedward, came up against Olly Murs in the sing-off.

The twins' rendition of Boyzone's No Matter What was unusually subdued with no dance routine and no tricks.

Olly, one of the show favourites, said he was "a bit gutted" to be in the bottom two.

But his polished performance of Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight was too good for the brothers.

His fans will nevertheless have wondered if judge Simon Cowell could turn around and stab the superior singer in the back, as he did with Welsh teenager Lucie Jones earlier in the series when she came up against the twins.

But Cowell stuck with Olly, telling the twins: "I'm actually going to miss you, I am."

Cheryl Cole also voted for Olly while Louis Walsh went with his act, John and Edward.

That left Dannii Minogue to ratchet up the tension. She said: "I'm going to have to judge it as I've judged it the whole time. On the premise that it's a singing competition I will have to send home John and Edward."

The pair remained all smiles as they were voted out, saying Olly deserved to go through and reach the final. One of the twins said: "It's been the greatest experience of my life. We're here every single weekend on live television having the greatest time of our life." The other chipped in with: "It's, like, deadly. It's, like, so cool."