The X Factor 5 - The Judges' Homes - Cheryl Cole, Kimberley Walsh and the Girls in Cannes

Finally, the most competitive category; The Girls were told that they would be whisked off to Cannes, and were overjoyed to learn that their mentor would be new judge, Cheryl Cole, assisted by fellow Girls Aloud member and best friend Kimberley Walsh.

What better way to show the standard of the girls this year to Kimberley than kicking it all off with Diana Vickers whose "captivating" performance of "Nothing compares to you" left, me for one, amazed. However Diana wasn't as impressed with her vocals and Cheryl noted that this lack of self-confidence could be a downside for Diana.

Someone who was thrilled to have Cheryl as their judge was Amy Connolly who brought Cheryl to tears and gained a compassionate hug. And another hug was in store for Amy as she cocked up the lyrics in "Nothing sweet about me" and broke down in tears, again. She did however pull herself back together and give a decent performance in the end clearly showing her likeability to Kimberley.

Hannah Bradbeer was next to perform with "Piece of my heart" and her unique vocals had "thrown a right spanner in the works".

Somebody who had failed to impress Cheryl in the last bootcamp stage was Laura White who Cheryl compared to Amy Winehouse after a few drinks. Nonetheless confident Laura stood in front of them both and gave an absolutely fantastic performance of "Cry me a river" showing both her power and her diversity; Cheryl showed her appreciation by saying to fellow band member: "You can't take away from the fact that she's unbelievable".

Could next in line, Annastasia Baker, top Laura White's performance? Unfortunately no, and it didn't help that she too forgot the lyrics to "Oh baby I" and broke down in tears.

The final performance of the night came from Alexandra Burke who has had an amazing journey so far, following her previous upset three years ago where at this very stage, her hopes were dashed and she got the boot from the competition from Louis Walsh. Alexandra has so far had a perfect spell of near-flawless performances and did not fail to deliver tonight, giving the performance of her life, and the performance of the series so far for me. Her powerful, yet soulful and soft, rendition of Beyoncé's "Listen" blew both mentor and assistant away. "The biggest soundtrack song, and she killed it like that."

A good set of performances from the girls left Cheryl questioning why she wanted the Girls so much "because it's the hardest category".

With all the contestants having sung and the judges made their decision on who will be taken through to the live shows, all that is left now is for the mentors to reveal to their contestants who has and hasn't made it. Tune in tomorrow night (04/10/08) at 6.10pm to hear the news.

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