'X Factor' Pays Tribute to Michael Jackson

As the competition is slowly drawing to a close, "X Factor" ups the stakes as contestants are asked to tackle Michael Jackson's body of work.

No doubt, everyone has a King of Pop piece on the ready but did we mention that they'll be performing in front of Jackson's sisters, mother and children?

Josh Krajcik kicks off the show with "Dirty Diana" and boasted of some guitar playing. Overall, the vocal work was okay and the guitar solo was ill timed, in fact the song didn't really need it. The ever so blunt Simon Cowell made an important point-the performance was overly produced by Nicole Scherzinger and the one time Pussycat Doll might have been projecting her personal biases.

Astro stayed to form busting out all original lyrics over the chorus of "Black or White." For someone that young, Astro is a delight to watch. Most everyone gushed over the performance with nary a bad critique. Drew No Last Name performed a slow "Billy Jean" as she is won't to do. To be honest, nothing new happened except some fans of the show thought it was a tad inappropriate for a young girl. Nicole and Paula Abdul, on the other hand, loved it.

Rachel Crow, who from the start has been famously compared to Jackson, performed "Can You Feel It." Oddly enough, it was a bit lacklustre and the consensus is that she could've done a much better job. Marcus Canty who is normally a good performer did "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" and it proved to be quite a solid performance for all but Simon.

A bit of trivia: Chris Rene's grandfather wrote "Rockin' Robin" and parts of "Ben" so he says that it makes him feel much more connected to the material though he performed "I'll Be There." The vocals are shaky and rough but once Rene got to the rapping part, it blew absolutely everyone away. Melanie Amaro sang "Earth Song," a difficult song at best. Good thing that aside from looking flawless Amaro owned the song vocally and was arguably the best of the night.

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