IT’S Cher Lloyd’s big night tonight – and here’s hoping she doesn’t fall at the first hurdle. The 17-year-old from Malvern sings in the first live show of this year’s X Factor on ITV1 tonight in front of an expected 12 million or more viewers.

It has been a tough week for Cher as the national tabloid newspapers have engaged in their favourite sport of knocking people down.

The teenager has borne the brunt of the tabloids’ battle to gain circulation increases from the high level of interest in the X Factor.

You will not see the kind of stories published by the nationals in the Worcester News.

Our intention is to continue highlighting the success of a local girl in the most talked-about show on British television.

We would love to see Cher win the contest because we like to celebrate local success.

We know not all our readers are interested in the X Factor and we know not all of those who are will be backing Cher.

That’s fine. We are not telling our readers to vote for Cher.

But we are supporting the youngster and we think many of our readers will be doing the same.

If you want to show your support for the teenager you can download one of our Vote4Cher posters from our website. There are five to choose from.

Just log on to worcesternews.co.uk/vote4cher

Here’s hoping Cher does Worcestershire proud tonight.