X Factor USA Semi-Final Acts Lay It On The Line
SPOILER ALERT: This article covers events not yet screened in the UK.
The remaining four acts in The X Factor USAhave done battle in the show's penultimate week - performing two acts apiece again.
And all of the contenders won praise from the judges in a week that saw a bump in the quality of performance.
Tate Stevens attempted to stretch himself beyond country music with a version of Clay Walker's Fall, prompting Simon Cowell to tell him: "There is about as much chance of you going back to your old job as there is of me flying to the moon tomorrow night."
Teenage sensation Carly Rose Sonenclar also impressed with her take on Elton John's Your Song, but there were comments that her cover of John Lennon's Imagine was a bit overblown.
Boy band Emblem 3 covered Baby I Love Your Way and Hey Jude this week, winning wild praise from judge LA Reid.
The former record exec told them: "With the song choice I was prepared to rip you to shreds. Doing a Beatles song is presumptuous.. You are teen stars like The Beatles. Great job."
Meanwhile girl group Fifth Harmony performed Ellie Goulding's Anything Could Happen and Shontelle's Impossible (James Arthur's debut single, fact fans).
After their first song, Britney Spears told them: "I loved everything about it. It was like magic."
The results show is being screened this evening in the US.
XFactor USAjudge Britney is reported to be workng on a new album.
