Ella Henderson has revealed that she is inspired by the memory of her late grandfather when it comes to her music career.

The sixteen year old singer from Lincolnshire wowed the judges on last night’s first episode of the X Factor 2012 series and after singing her owned self penned song, guest judge Mel B – who had been nicknamed Grumpy Spice because of her negative attitude towards other contestants – raved about the teenager’s ‘clever’ song writing skills, adding:

“It made me go into my own little world, and go OMG, I felt like that at one point.”

Backstage Ella revealed that her grandfather Bill – who passed away when she was eight years old – had always encouraged her to sing and follow her dreams of a music career and speaking to The Daily Star later she admitted that she can feel his presence with her when she performs.

The stunning singer explained:

“Every time I perform I always imagine him there next to me or sat in the audience watching me,” Ella told the Daily Star Sunday today. “I know he is with me for every performance. He was so supportive of my singing.

“My family give me the confidence to go up on stage but my grandad gives me the inner confidence when I’m on stage singing. If he was still here he would be so, so proud. He would put his arms around my mum and dad and say ‘See, I told you it would all be worth it’. And if he was still alive I would thank him for giving me the inspiration that he did.

Bookies are now already tipping Ella as favourite to win the competition in December, even though it has not yet been confirmed that she has reached the judges houses round.

If she has, she’ll be working with Tulisa Contostavlos, who is mentoring the girls for this year’s series. The N-Dubz star told Ella that she was desperate to have her on her team this year and would love to work with her and develop her talent, so we predict she’s a show in for the live shows.

Ella took time out to thank all her new fans and supporters this morning and after being inundated on Twitter with praise and very positive messages, she tweeted her followers back saying:

‘a big thank you to everyone for such amazing support!! it means everythin to me x sending lots of love to u all!! xxx’

Do you think Henderson is good enough for the live shows? Leave your comments below…