There was hardly a dry eye in the house on Wednesday when Demi Lovato, Kelly Rowland and two members of the boyband Restless Road all broke down on The X Factor.
First to crumble was Simon Cowell's boyband protégé Colton Pack who unleashed a torrent of tears after singing a country version of Avicii's Wake Me Up.
Pack, a small town 18-year-old from West Virginia then set off Lovato, who later bawled at two other acts on the show.
'Stop crying, you are making me cry right now,' former Disney starlet told the blubbering teenager.
'I'm trying,' he sniffed, while triggering the tear ducts of his baritone band mate Zach Beeken, 18, who hugged him for support.
'You guys need to cry, this is real and it's happening,' encouraged Mexican pop icon Paulino Rubio, 42.
Clearly overcome Pack rambled on about their tiny hometowns of Danese, West Virginia; Summerville, South Carolina and Indiana, Pennsylvania: 'We're doing this for them, It's not just about us anymore, it's more than that...so much more,' he sobbed.
Further sentimentality unfurled after mildly disabled Rion Paige sang an unplugged version of Glass by Thompson Square.
The likeable 13-year-old, who has a condition called AMC, which freezes her hands and wrists said she wanted to show the public that she's 'a fighter'.
The first to weep was Paige's mother, closely followed by Lovato, then Rowland, whose voice cracked half way through her appraisal.
'So beautiful,' chocked the former Destiny's Child, 32.
'Sweet girl,' gushed Lovato, with tears streaming down her face.
The slushy performances were part of the top six's battle for a place in the semi finals.
Each contestant attempted one hit from the music business' greatest 'divas' and one completely 'unplugged' track.
One of the strongest acts was lovebirds Alex and Sierra, who nailed Say My Name by Destiny's Child – which Cowell devoted to the band's founding member Kelly Rowland.
The adorable Florida couple handled the down-tempo version beautifully, and even Rowland bobbed her head in approval.
'You guys really pulled that off actually,' said Rowland while praising Sierra's newfound 'sass'.
'I get the feeling I'm looking at winners here,' purred Cowell, while greedily eyeing the 'gap in the market' for the duet.
The couple later raised the roof with a romantic ballad Say Something by Great Big World.
Sierra Deaton, 22, played the piano for 'the first time in front of anyone' while her lover Alex Kinsey, also 22, strummed guitar.
'You never took your eyes off each other, it brought tears to my eyes,' said Lovato, who was clearly in an emotional mood.
Cowell called it his 'favourite performance of the season'.
First of the night were Restless Road, who didn't evoke tears with their first track - Taylor Swift's heartbreak track Red – which they sang in growling harmonies.
Rowland thought their vocals were 'tighter' than in previous weeks and Lovato agreed that they had 'grown as artists'.
'I love to watch you, little Elvis,' cooed Rubio to Colton Pack.
'You guys have to be in the final, you deserve it and you've really gelled as a band,' said Cowell, who threw the singers together a few weeks ago, in anticipation of their lucrative potential.
Teen cutie Paige last week was in the bottom two and she divided the judges with her attempt at Carrie Underwood's difficult tune See You Again.
'It's always genuine, you sing from a real place and you look beautiful my dear,' congratulated Rowland.
'It was a good song but not the best song perhaps,' Cowell told the jovial Florida native.
'No one has fire behind their eyes like you do,' Lovato told the school kid, who lives with her parents in Jacksonville.
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