It was the era of ra ra skirts, hyper colour t-shirts and Back to the Future. The 1980s played host to a huge number of unforgettable hits, 11 of which we heard tonight. Mentoring the Idols this week was pop legend Cyndi Lauper, and the international superstar wasn’t afraid to put the Idols through their paces.

Kicking the show off was Mr Luke Dickens with the classic nostalgic rock song “Jack and Diane”, originally performed by John Mellencamp. Cyndi thought Luke was an everyman kinda guy singing an everyman song: his confident, comfortable performance had Cyndi crying!

Brooke Addamo was up next with Kim Carne’s “Bette Davis Eyes”, and Cyndi encouraged this talented teen to live the song and not just act it, and to not be afraid to be aggressive onstage. It worked – Kyle said it was sultry, well executed; perfect.

Madam Parker was suffering from flu when she worked on her Donna Summer track “Upside Down” with Cyndi, but luckily the pop legend had all manner of tricks up her sleeve to help the ailing soul singer. Kyle said she looked fantastic while Marcia said she just looked so comfortable on the stage.

Someone else whose voice wasn’t up to scratch in rehearsals was Mark Spano, but Cyndi let the singer in on some tricks of the trade so Mark would never lose his voice again. Tonight he wowed the judges with “I Wanna Know What Love Is” - Marcia said there’d be millions of women wanting to show Mark what love is!

Tom Williams wasn’t born until 1992, but nevertheless he took on Billy Joel’s feel-good track “Uptown Girl”, which Cyndi instructed him to croon – and croon he did! The ladies liked it, but Kyle said it was a disaster. Uh-oh!

Chrislyn Hamilton picked Cyndi Lauper’s own hit “True Colours” long before she knew Cyndi would be mentoring her through her performance. For Chrislyn, this emotional song was about expressing the importance of inner beauty, and Marcia said she showed her true colours, and she was beautiful.

For Teale Jakubenko, U2’s big ballad “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is a song about doubt, an emotion resonant with the 22-year-old. Being in the bottom three last week put fire in Teale’s belly to take it to the next level, and the judges were in agreeance: Teale had stepped up and it was a superstar performance.

It was an altogether more confident Sophie Paterson onstage this week: the blonde bombshell busted out some dance moves to accompany her take on the 1983 track that broke the Eurythmics worldwide, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”. Cyndi said she was with her on every note.

It should come as no surprise that the iconic Bruce Springsteen is the kind of artist Wes Carr relates to. Cyndi had this singer/ songwriter blowing up balloons to warm his lungs up, and the exercise paid off - Dicko said it was yet another brilliant performance!

“What’s Love Got To Do With It”? A whole lot if you’re Roshani Priddis, cuz this big song was the tiny singer’s song choice for tonight. Kyle said it was well executed, poised and beautiful but he wanted her to smash it out of the park – Cyndi thought that she did!

Thanh Bui had no idea The Police’s “Every Breathe You Take” was actually about stalking – luckily he had Cyndi to help point him in the right direction! The judges liked Thanh’s performance but encouraged him to drop the veneer and keep growing.

Vote now – see you Monday!