The X Factor 5 - The Judges' Homes - Simon and Sinitta take the Boys to Barbados

Storms, tears, nerves, forgotten lyrics and weird outfits; you guessed it, it's the Judges' homes stage of The X Factor 5. And tonight's show didn't fail to deliver the drama that the show thrives upon.

The final 24 contestants were sent to the airport where they were to wait in their categories to find out where their dreams would be made, or crushed.

The boys were clearly over the moon to discover that they were being whisked off to Barbados. They were equally as pleased to discover that they were to be mentored by Simon Cowell, assisted by an interestingly dressed Sinitta whose outfit left little to the imagination.

Simon's retreat in Barbados was of course not only their final chance to impress their mentor, but the trip of a lifetime, and none more than for Eoghan Quigg who had never been abroad before. He was first to step up for the boys and perform "Father & Son". Sinitta thought that he wasn't quite ready yet, and Simon felt that Eoghan came over as somewhat "robotic."

Next for the boys was Liam Payne who was given a lifeline at bootcamp, dashing Rikki Loney's dreams of making it to the next stage. Liam performed "A million love songs" and didn't disappoint Sinitta - "Love him, he just has such a cute face" whereas Simon was a little apprehensive telling Sinitta he felt "It was good, but not fantastic."

Mali-Michael McCalla was next to perform and progressing to the live shows meant he could finally be like his father and make a career from singing. And the disappointing and arguably wrong song choice of "All in Love is fair" left the judging pair doubting his ability and exclaiming "he went off key a lot".

Could teary-eyed Austin Drage finally fight back the tears and stop himself from blubbing on camera? Well, no, but that didn't stop him from giving a very good performance of "She's out of my life", and Simon clearly saw something special. "That last performance is just going to change this boy's life forever."

Tissues away, former bluecoat Scott Bruton was next in line to perform for Simon and Sinitta. Simon issued Scott with the song "I can't make you love me", and being "one of the hardest songs to sing" Simon felt that he "went for it".

And last, but not least, was Alan Turner whose controversial story had gained him a lot of press coverage ever since his audition. After performing "All or Nothing", Simon got out of his chair, interrupted Dermot's brief interview and pulled Alan to one side and asked him promptly for the truth. A distraught Alan looked into Simon's eyes and told him that he would not lie and he swears on his life that he is telling the truth about his family life. "I think he's telling the truth" says Simon to a bewildered Sinitta.

In true dramatic X Factor style, Simon and Sinitta were left to make their decision on a backdrop of torrential rain and flash lightning.

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 on ITV1 to hear the news.

To discuss tonight's show and much more visit The X Factor forum.