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" After last week&amp;#039;s emotional exit of Stereo Hogzz, it&amp;#039;s time for the Top 10 X Factor USA contestants to hit the stage to take on Rock Week.  As the hopefuls attempt to impress panelists Simon Cowell, LA Reid, Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul, who will succeed and who will come up short? Stay with Digital Spy from 8/7c to find out! 21:59 And that&amp;#039;s it for this week! Who will fall into the bottom two tomorrow and who will be sent home? Tune in at 8/7c to find out!   21:50 Marcus Canty is the final performer and is taking on Janis Joplin&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Piece of my Heart&amp;#039;. He&amp;#039;s another one I&amp;#039;ve just gotten really bored with. He wears his little studded jacket and goes around touching girls&amp;#039; hands, but it&amp;#039;s all pomp and circumstance and there doesn&amp;#039;t seem to be much else to hit.  Nicole appreciates that he took on &amp;quot;the queen of roots rock&amp;quot; (What?) and still lit the stage on fire. &amp;quot;Literally,&amp;quot; she adds... except I don&amp;#039;t think she know what literal actually means, since the stage seems to be just fine. Paula dubs him &amp;quot;the entertainer of the competition&amp;quot; and says that Marcus&amp;#039;s performances leave her tired, but he always pulls her in.  Simon jokes that LA has put him in hell by having him look up girls&amp;#039; skirts on stage and admits that the song didn&amp;#039;t work for him as it tried to present him as someone who he is not. However, LA stands behind the performance, saying simply, &amp;quot;You rocked!&amp;quot;   21:38 Drew Ryniewicz is doing U2&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;With Or Without You&amp;#039; - ugh, something tells me we&amp;#039;re in for the same schtick. Two notes in, it&amp;#039;s clear that we are. I understand the impulse to want to keep on with something that seems to be working, but she literally does the same thing every week.  LA again says that Drew has one of the most original voices in the competition, but still feels like she needs to change it up. And I totally agree with him. However, he thinks that she still has a chance to win the competition. Nicole prefaces her comments by saying that she adores Drew but was waiting for the tempo to pick up and for more to happen. She also admits that she was frustrated with the lack of energy.  Paula thinks that Drew is in a good place because she has a strong fanbase. However, she thinks that she should take advantage of that by being more adventurous in her song choices. Simon tells her to take no notice of the other judges and restates his support for her, saying that she&amp;#039;ll be in the competition until the end.   21:25 Because Lakoda Rayne were personally sent to punish me for whatever wrongdoings I must have committed throughout my life, they&amp;#039;ve decided to murder Outfield&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Use Your Love&amp;#039;.  It&amp;#039;s not as bad as past weeks, but now they&amp;#039;re just trying to copy Katy Perry&amp;#039;s cover version. Oh no, and then they launch into Fleetwood Mac&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Go Your Own Way&amp;#039;. Make it stop! What&amp;#039;s worse is that the judges are going to love this, so I&amp;#039;ll just sit here and stew in my own misery. LA is happy that they&amp;#039;re finally having fun, but is unsure that they measure up to their fellow competitors and have what it takes to become global superstars. He says that it was better than past weeks, but that it still wasn&amp;#039;t great. Nicole thinks that country rock is their lane, admitting that she missed the rawness and fun and was glad to see them &amp;quot;do their thing&amp;quot;. However, she urges them to let go even more.  Simon calls tonight&amp;#039;s performance &amp;quot;a complete mess&amp;quot;, and once again I have to declare my love for him. He deems the outfits and dancing atrocious and urges everyone to watch it back and see how much it fell short. However, Paula stands her ground in saying that they did a great job and have earned their place in the competition. She also thinks that Lakoda Rayne can be the next Dixie Chicks. Cowboy, take me away to a land where that comparison never took place, please.  21:15 It&amp;#039;s a mix-up of Sting&amp;#039;s / Puff Daddy&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;ll Be Watching/Missing You&amp;#039; for young Brian &amp;#039;Astro&amp;#039; Bradley. He does his usual reworking of the lyrics with some original rap. There&amp;#039;s no denying this kid is prolific but yet again... is this rock? Sure, The Police were technically rock, but... ugh, nevermind. This whole thing is a bit murky. This performance is not bad and manages to get all the judges but Simon out of their seats, but I&amp;#039;m not particularly moved.  Nicole calls it a &amp;quot;smart&amp;quot; song choice but wonders if he&amp;#039;s ready, at this age, for a $5 million recording contract. However, she insists that he definitely is. Paula asks if he can &amp;quot;just suck for once&amp;quot;, calling him &amp;quot;phenomenal and amazing&amp;quot; and claiming that he&amp;#039;s ready to hit the studio immediately and begin selling records.  Simon thinks that Astro has more intelligence and maturity than many of the older contestants, saying that he has a chance of winning the competition as he knows who he wants to be as an artist. LA agrees, of course, applauding him for &amp;quot;knocking it out of the park&amp;quot; and continuing to make him proud. Steve even gives Astro the most awkward hug I&amp;#039;ve ever seen, so he must be a fan, as well.   21:04 Josh Krajcik gets his turn now, and you know I love him. He&amp;#039;s singing Foo Fighters&amp;#039; &amp;#039;The Pretender&amp;#039;. This is definitely not his vibe whatsoever and I&amp;#039;m not much of a fan of the song choice, but it&amp;#039;s the first &amp;quot;proper&amp;quot; rock song they&amp;#039;ve had tonight. His voice is still fantastic, though, and it&amp;#039;s undeniable that he&amp;#039;s really talented... especially since Nicole is nearly having a seizure as she dances.  LA says that he has the authenticity and stage presence, a great song choice and is the only person to have rocked the house tonight. That&amp;#039;s what I said! It was Paula&amp;#039;s favourite performance not only of Josh&amp;#039;s but of the night.  Simon deems it &amp;quot;bloody fantastic&amp;quot; and tells him never to listen to anyone on the show ever again. Nicole was taken back to her rock band days (she was in Days of the New? Crazy!) and thanks Foo Fighters for clearing the rights to the song. &amp;quot;You rock, brother!&amp;quot; she adds to Josh. Well, considering the theme, I&amp;#039;d hope so.  20:52 Melanie Amaro is up next with R.E.M.&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Everybody Hurts&amp;#039;. Nice song choice, particularly for her. It&amp;#039;s a very stripped down performance, just Melanie and a piano, and it works. The great thing with Melanie is that her vocals are that good - and that effortless - that she doesn&amp;#039;t have to rely on any fancy stage tricks to make her an absolutely fantastic performer. She proves that point once again tonight.  LA thinks that the song wasn&amp;#039;t rock - he&amp;#039;s wrong and bitter, but whatever. He has nothing else to say about the performance, which was lame of him. Nicole says that she always cries at the song but wondered why she didn&amp;#039;t connect more with her tonight. What&amp;#039;s with everyone being a hater tonight?  Paula, however, thinks that Melanie took everyone to church - agreed! However, she wants to see Melanie let loose next week. Simon is reminded of Adele and Alicia Keys and is extremely proud of her for tonight&amp;#039;s performance.   20:42 Now it&amp;#039;s Stacy Francis&amp;#039; turn onstage and she&amp;#039;s singing C\u00E9line Dion&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;It&amp;#039;s All Coming Back To Me Now&amp;#039;. Um... really? As an old-school C\u00E9line fan, I can&amp;#039;t hate on this track but again... how is this rock? Also, Stacy&amp;#039;s got a voice on her, but no one sings C\u00E9line besides C\u00E9line. It&amp;#039;s an unspoken rule. I&amp;#039;m not a fan. It gets particularly disastrous towards the end as she starts sing-shouting and goes vaguely operatic. I&amp;#039;m not even sure what&amp;#039;s happening, but it&amp;#039;s not good.  LA promises that he won&amp;#039;t be mean, says that she sang the song well and leaves it at that. Paula, however, has to be honest and calls it the least favourite song that Stacy has ever done as her pitch was off and she &amp;quot;just didn&amp;#039;t feel it&amp;quot;.  Simon thinks that her hair looks better this week than last but calls the song a &amp;quot;horrible choice&amp;quot;, admitting that he &amp;quot;wanted rock but got a pebble&amp;quot; because it was the type of song that someone would sing at a Hilton hotel. Still, Nicole insists that she was a &amp;quot;glam rock diva&amp;quot; tonight, but tells her to continue to stay positive in the face of adversity. Stacy doesn&amp;#039;t look too happy and has a total attitude, but whatever. Apparently it&amp;#039;s what her &amp;quot;Fran-atics&amp;quot; wanted. Two words for that: Oh, brother.  20:31 Chris Rene is up next and he&amp;#039;s taking on Bob Marley&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;No Woman, No Cry&amp;#039;. If you&amp;#039;re thinking to yourself, &amp;quot;Bob Marley doesn&amp;#039;t sing rock music,&amp;quot; you&amp;#039;re right, but LA is quick to point out that he is a Rock &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; Roll Hall of Fame inductee, so whatever. I feel bad saying this, but I&amp;#039;m kind of sick of Chris Rene. His performances don&amp;#039;t excite me at all and I find him really one-note. One &amp;#039;Lil Homie&amp;#039; does not a rounded artist make.  Nicole admits that it was original but not her favourite performance of his as she was &amp;quot;a little confused&amp;quot; by the track and the music. I&amp;#039;m confused by what Nicole says half the time, but she&amp;#039;s spot on here. Paula Abdul &amp;quot;gets&amp;quot; the song choice and loves that Chris isn&amp;#039;t the best vocalist but is still original and a great performer.  Simon was a fan of the performance but insists that the track was suited for reggae music and not rock and roll. However, LA was &amp;quot;really happy&amp;quot; that he managed to stay on key (uh, if today is opposite day) and defends the song choice.   20:14 It&amp;#039;s darling little Rachel Crow! I love this kid, as I&amp;#039;m sure you know by now. She&amp;#039;s doing The Rolling Stones&amp;#039; &amp;#039;I Can&amp;#039;t Get No Satisfaction&amp;#039; and from the first note, I absolutely love it. The styling is great, she sounds fantastic and it&amp;#039;s completely original and perfect for her. She&amp;#039;s just too cute - and I mean that in the least patronising way imaginable. It&amp;#039;s brilliant.  She gets a standing ovation from the judges - well deserved, too! LA questions whether she can sell records and tickets but answers a big &amp;#039;yes&amp;#039; and says that he&amp;#039;s really proud that she brought energy to a song and kept it from becoming karaoke. Nicole also praises the song choice, and says that tonight was her favourite performance of Rachel&amp;#039;s to date as she made it seem effortless and fun.  Rachel is one of Paula&amp;#039;s favourites, and Paula applauds her ability to connect with the audience. &amp;quot;It doesn&amp;#039;t matter if you have a hundred dancers, I only see you!&amp;quot; she adds. Simon can see her winning the show (so can I!) and insists that there&amp;#039;s nothing wrong with wanting to win the competition. He also thinks that tonight will get people to not only like her, but to begin respecting her as an artist as well.   20:07 We&amp;#039;re starting with LeRoy Bell tonight, who&amp;#039;s singing Bob Seeger&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;We&amp;#039;ve Got Tonight&amp;#039;. As per usual with him, it&amp;#039;s okay but rather bland. He has no charisma and there&amp;#039;s zero that makes me think I would ever buy one of his albums. I feel bad saying that because he seems like such a nice guy, but apparently X Factor is a singing competition and not a friendliness one.  LA says that the show is now looking for a star and someone who is going to sell records but admits that he&amp;#039;s still not &amp;quot;working it like a rockstar&amp;quot; despite looking and sounding good. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re good, but I need more!&amp;quot; he adds. (I agree!)  Paula thinks that he has a beautiful voice but agrees that on live television, there needs to be more of a connection between LeRoy and the audience and she urges him to keep it up.  Simon applauds him for the song choice and his voice, but insists that there&amp;#039;s nothing behind it and that LeRoy is being mentored as a &amp;quot;session singer&amp;quot;. Simon was hoping to be shocked by the performance but instead, we&amp;#039;re given the same songs week after week. Once again, Simon speaks my thoughts.  Nicole, however, believes in him and deems tonight his best performance. Which shows that as per usual, Nicole&amp;#039;s on something and she&amp;#039;s not sharing.  20:04 I still can&amp;#039;t believe this weak announcer&amp;#039;s voice. Who gave this guy the job? Steve Jones comes out with two &amp;quot;rock&amp;quot; ladies (women in short jean shorts and Guns &amp;#039;n&amp;#039; Roses tees) on his arm and brings out the judges. They&amp;#039;re playing &amp;#039;Livin&amp;#039; On A Prayer&amp;#039; in the background and Nicole and Paula are awkwardly dancing along as they&amp;#039;re introduced. It&amp;#039;s going to be a long night.  20:00 And we&amp;#039;re off! I feel like a broken record revealing who I&amp;#039;m looking forward to, as it&amp;#039;s the same each week. Also a little disappointed that Madonna/GaGa week was canceled in favour of general rock, but oh well! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-factor-us/news/a351320/x-factor-usa-top-10-perform-on-rock-week-live-blog/>