Lil' Kim & Derek Hough
Dance: Viennese Waltz

Lil' Kim may have been saved for last during Monday night's show, but we're going to start our recap with her anyway! We know you don't mind.

Kim and her partner, Derek Hough, closed down the show with their Viennese Waltz, which is an airy, romantic dance.

The Queen Bee was busy buzzing between dance studio and shooting a music video with Charlie Wilson all week, but she still managed to fit in some time to practice her Viennese Waltz.

The schedule may have been getting to Kim because she was having a little trouble getting the steps together, and that really began to frustrate her.  But Derek knew how to work around that. “If I teach Kim a move and she doesn’t get it by the fourth time, I leave it and try something new,” he said.

“Derrick has done everything to get the best out of me, so this time, I hope I deliver,” Kim said during a practice break.

We almost didn’t recognize Kim when she glided onto the floor in her soft pink ball gown, and what looked like a tiara.  But she looked absolutely beautiful and danced like a dream as she and Derek fluttered across the floor.

We think that it was a very sweet performance, but the song didn’t do Kim and Derek justice. It would have been so much better if they had been able to use the original track (Edwin McCain's "I'll Be"). Still, the performance earned them another standing ovation

“The whole time I was watching you I just beaming like I was your mom,” said Judge Carrie Ann Inaba. “You brought every woman to life.”

Judge Len agreed and said the performance was very lyrical. “It had a great musicality, I loved the floaty quality of the whole dance throughout,” he commented.

Judge Bruno Tonioli commented that he'd "never seen anyone manage to make the Viennese Waltz look sassy and sexy.”

He thinks Kim could be a contender for the grand prize. “It takes two people to win and what you do is the right way of doing it.”

Although their performance was amazing, it didn't inspire any 10s this week, they still they glided off the floor with a 26 out of 30.  That score didn’t get our girl down, instead she focused on what she’s getting out of the competition. 

“It's bringing out the sensitive side of Lil' Kim,” she said of her time in the competition so far. 

We think she’ll be sticking around for a while, because when we called to vote the lines were busy, and they stayed that way until at least 20 minutes after the show ended.