X Factor Does George Michael and It's the Best Performance Night of the Season So Far

It was George Michael night last night on X Factor, and, although he will not be performing on the results show, his music seemed a clear inspiration to the contestants. All seemed to step up their game to meet the challenge of the night. The performances were closed by Joe McElderry's stunning performance of "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me." I believe it would be in the competition for being named the top single performance of the season thus far.

Louis Walsh's increasingly silly and inconsistent commentary on the "rules" continued this week. He roundly accused Joe McElderry of cheating by performing a song that wasn't written by George Michael and was a cover of an Elton John song. However, early in the show he had praised Dannii Minogue for "brilliant song choice" when Stacey Solomon sang "I Can't Make You Love Me." Unfortunately, by his later statements this was a cheat as well. American pop fans in particular know that "I Can't Make You Love Me" was originally a hit for Bonnie Raitt and certainly not written by George Michael. So...the conclusion would seem to be Louis Walsh had a distinct lack of knowledge in that area or simply pettiness about Joe McElderry.

Although his performance was probably the best he has turned in yet during the live performance phase, Lloyd Daniels remains the one contestant who is not in the class of the others. His version of George Michael's "Faith" was an improvement, but he still appears, in the words of Simon Cowell, "like a puppy competing in the grand nationals." My expectation this week is that Lloyd Daniels and Stacey Solomon will land in the bottom two with the judges voting to keep Stacey Solomon around for next week.

• Watch Joe McElderry sing "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me"

_{Photo courtesy ITV}