Wow, tonight’s live show was amazing wasn’t it? We missed Diana Vickers, and hope she gets better for next week.

Laura shocked us by coming on and playing piano, and Rachel continued on her losing streak with an horrific version of Against All Odds. Incidentally, that was the song Steve Brookstein released after winning the first season of X Factor. Will the curse of Brookstein strike tonight?

Anyway, we’re here to rate tonight’s acts, so without further ado, here’s tonight’s X Factor chart.

1. Alexandra Burke – Being a massive Mariah fan, Alex was destined to give a great performance tonight. She excelled with a powerhouse rendition of Without You. Maybe not quite to Leona Lewis standards, but she has the …cough, cough… pop factor.
2. Laura White – Laura sacrificed her vocals slightly in order to play piano onstage tonight. But at the same time, when she abandoned the piano for the climax of the song, she showed the full power of her voice. First time she came across as a solid contender for me tonight.
3. Eoghan Quigg – I think Eoghan surprised everybody tonight with his singing and the strength of his voice. And the absence of Diana tonight allows him to slip into the top three.
4. JLS – JLS have improved over the last two weeks. A commenter on the blog tells us it’s because they’re using a backing track that is masking their voices, which might go some way toward explaining how smooth their vocals have suddenly become. We’re not sure how much truth there is in the rumours – what do you think?
5. Daniel Evans – Daniel the dark horse has his first week NOT in our bottom two. How the voters see it remains to be seen!
6. Ruth Lorenzo – Spain’s greatest hope let her performance slip tonight and suffers for it in our chart. While it was technically a good vocal performance, we actually agree with Louis that she didn’t connect with the audience tonight. Maybe the song was too big for her?
7. Rachel Hylton – I’ve been saying for the last fortnight that Rachel needs to deliver on the promise she showed at auditions. I don’t understand why the judges are so keen to keep her in the competition – she even got outsung by Daniel Evans tonight.

As I write this, the results show is just about to roll, so share your thoughts on who should leave the competition tonight in our comments section.