Could Michael "Big Mike" Lynche from New York be the Irish girl's biggest competition if (or should we say when) she makes it through to the top 12 tonight?

Yes - well her biggest male competition anyway.

Big Mike, a burly gym instructor with awesome chops, moved the judges to tears with his rendition of "This Woman's Work" on Wednesday night.

Big Mike, who lives up to his name, became a father at the beginning of the show and his passion and sincerity in the song had judge Kara DioGuardi in tears.

"It's amazing. You were amazing," DioGuardi said. "It's your life right now, it's your respect for your wife, what you've gone through. ... It brought me to tears."

Ellen DeGeneres said "You're the one to beat in this competition."

Simon Cowell, who was particularly hard on Magnus on Tuesday night when she performed - what we thought- was a rocking version of "The House of the Rising Sun" told Big Mike that he nailed the song.

"You come out with an incredibly difficult song to sing, and you 100 percent nailed it," said usually grumpy Simon.

"Not just the best performance of the night, it was the best performance of all these live shows so far."

In the women's category, Magnus' only competition is Crystal Bowersock who from the start has been rock solid.

Our Top 3 predictions:

Cyrstal Bowersock, Big Mike and Siobhan Magnus.