Before we watch Cassie perform tonight we take a look back at how her week started.

She has a meeting with her 'family' of Sharon Osbourne, Mark Hudson and Terry Longden on Sunday. They watch her Saturday performance of I Say A Little Prayer and have a group cringe. Their reactions do seem a bit over the top, Cassie may not have been at her best but she wasn't that bad!

A post mortem follows. "What went wrong for you?" asks Sharon.

"I think I tried to push myself a little bit too hard and I was incredibly nervous." is Cassie's analysis.

Mark Hudson tells Cassie he wants to work on "getting rid of that distance between you and the audience".

It's probably difficult to think of Simon naked whilst singing a song called 'Hero', but on stage tonight Cassie is certainly doing something to keep calm.

She begins the song sitting on the steps at the front of the stage. Her delivery is much more controlled than last week. She moves around the stage with composure. Less is more it seems. By holding back a little and letting her intensity build gradually she conveys the emotion of the song much more forcefully.

As Cassie faces the panel she must be pleased with her performance, and she'll be hoping that the judges are too...

Kate: Okay Cassie, time for the judges' verdicts. Louis!

Louis: Kate, y'know a seventeen year old girl comes on stage, she sings a big Mariah Carey ballad and she does it with passion and she performs it so well. Cassie I think you're gonna be in the music business for a long, long time, and you deserve to be on that stage! (cheers) You're a star. It was really, really good.

Kate: Thank you Louis, thank you Louis. Simon?

Simon: Hell of a lot better than last week! Erm, my only problem... slight problem is...is that we're talking about songs being bigger than the artist... is I always have a problem when someone sings...or tries to sing... outsing a Mariah Carey song because I always identify that song with Mariah. And you're seventeen...

Louis: But she did a really good job Simon...

Simon: I haven't finished...

Louis: ...she delivered.

Simon: ...you're seventeen. It's all a bit old fashioned. (some boos)

Louis: No, I disagree!

Simon: (muffled) ...seventeen years old. How old's Mariah?

Louis: She did a fantastic job Simon.

Simon: Yeah, she did a good version of it, but you'll never compare with the Mariah version.

Louis: But she's only seventeen.

Sharon: But she doesn't want to, she just wants to be herself Simon. But it's a song that she likes and feels comfortable singing. (cheers)

Simon: Good.

Kate: Cassie...

Sharon: (butts in) Just because it wasn't about a cake...(stops herself in midflow) excuse me...(she holds onto Cassie protectively)... Cassie!

Kate: Trust me, if you knew what that song was really about you wouldn't go there. (Simon's laughter can be heard)... Cassie, last week you were criticised for nerves. I think both Simon and Louis have agreed that you really overcame those tonight, but do you think they have a point with anything they've said? Are you too young to be singing songs like that?

Cassie: Erm, I sang that song because I feel it... and it really means something to me... and erm, I don't know if that was conveyed to Simon, but I... it really means something to me...

Simon: (pouts out his bottom lip ruefully)

Cassie: ...So... (big cheers)

Kate: And also I think it's fair to say that Christine Aguilera was your age when she was signed. It didn't stop her big ballads. So for now let's see how the public get behind you tonight. But everybody give it up for Sharon and Cassie! (Big Cheers)