I think Melanie had the best performance of the night, tied with Drew

If you missed last night’s episode of The X Factor, you missed a tribute to Michael Jackson, complete with Michael’s mother Katherine, his brothers Marlon, Tito and Jackie, and his kids Prince, Paris and Blanket in the audience. Had I not been overwhelmed by dogs, dogs, dogs over here I would have given you the play by play.

But in short: Josh overproduced and under sang; Marcus did another corny caberet extravaganza; Drew soared (even LA liked it); Astro finally had fun; Chris Rene connected; Rachel was a little ray of sunshine; and Melanie stole the show.

In fact, I’m going out on a limb: I think Melanie might take the whole contest. We’ll find out if she has a shot, because tonight two contestants are headed home. And I think one of them is going to be Marcus. Here are the rest of the final 7 performances: