X Factor may have had its challenges this week - The Risk losing a band member, Little Mix losing their name, judge Kelly Rowland losing her voice - but one of the show's big winners over the weekend was undoubtedly Alexandra Burke.
Burke, previously a winner of the show in 2008, was drafted in at the last minute as bosses frantically scratched around for a replacement for the indisposed Rowland, who phoned in her sick note from sunny LA. Doctors had forbidden her to travel with her throat infection, she said - no mention of her on-air fisticuffs with rival judge Tulisa Contostavlos the week before.
From the outset of Saturday night's performance, Burke showed she meant business, saying, "'I'm here to back the girls, here for Kelly's girls and ain't taking any nonsense from this one over here," she added, pointing to rival judge Louis Walsh.
And she chipped in with plenty of criticism of her own, calling Walsh's act Kitty Brucknell a "cabaret singer".
Walsh disagreed, leading Burke to conduct her own... what we’ll call doing a Rowland, shouting over her rival judge and finally finishing him off with an indisputable "Okay.com" - which then went to trend on Twitter, bizarrely.
Sunday night saw her move even more centre-stage, as two of Rowland’s girl acts - Misha B and Sophie Habibis - were forced to compete in the sing-off. Although Rowland was croaking away on the phone from LA with her votes and input, it was Burke who held the girls by the hand on stage, congratulated the show's survivor, an emotional Misha B, and comforted the losing contestant Sophie.
Burke has been one of the X Factor's biggest success stories, with her version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah! selling more than 100,000 copies in one day when it was released, and going on to become the UK's best-selling single of the year. To date, she has sold more than 4 million records.
Despite her success, Burke can no doubt remember exactly how it feels to stand on the X Factor stage waiting with bated breath for judges and audience to deliver their verdict, and her empathy on Sunday night for all to see. In this, she differs from US star Kelly Rowland, who came to international fame with girl group Destiny's Child.
While Kelly Rowland was mentioned regularly by all the judges over the course of both shows this weekend, she is clearly not having much fun on the show. It may be of comfort to Simon Cowell and other production chiefs that, if a permanent replacement judge does need to be found, a suitable candidate is very close at hand.
Click through our Slideshow to see Alexandra Burke's transformation since she first grabbed our attention as an X Factor contestant three short years ago...