WE’RE backing Natalie! Today, the Lancashire Telegraph launches its campaign to make East Lancashire star Natalie Gumede this year’s Strictly champion.
The show returns to our screens tonight ((SAT)) for more glitz, glamour and glitterballs.
Last week, Natalie cha-cha-cha’d her way to the top of the leaderboard, coming second only to model and footballer’s wife Abbey Clancey but this week, the Burnley-born actress will need public votes to stay in the game.
The great and the good of East Lancashire have backed Natalie and pledged to cast their votes tonight - with Labour leader Ed Miliband even lending his support during a visit to Darwen yesterday ((FRI)).
Natalie’s Coronation Street co-star Julie Hesmondhalgh, who plays Hayley Cropper in the hit soap said: “I love Natalie to bits and, of course, I want her to do really well.”
The 29-year-old actress, who studied at Park High School in Colne, stunned the judges last Saturday night, dancing the cha cha cha to Boney M’s Rasputin - a routine which managed to force a smile from the usually sour-faced Craig Revel Horwood, who called Natalie the ‘frontrunner’ of the competition.
This week, Natalie and her partner Artem Chigvintsev will dance a waltz to If I Ain’t Got You by Alicia Keys.
Speaking on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two on Tuesday night, Natalie said: “It’s so difficult, the contrast between such a fast paced dance then to go to something so controlled.
“Everything is against everything that I’ve been taught so far and also, I think, it’s against all my instincts.
“There’s nothing that I know and I am struggling with it a little bit.”
When asked about how it felt to be complimented by the judges and called the frontrunner of the competition, Natalie said: “I was intimidated because it’s quite a tall statement for week one.
“I feel like I’ve got a lot to live up to now.”
This year, for the first time viewers will be able to cast their vote for free online.
To register and vote for Natalie, visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/strictlycomedancing/posts/Vote-Strictly
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