THE region is being encouraged to get behind James Arthur during this weekend’s X-Factor after his near elimination on Sunday.

The Saltburn-born singer songwriter was in the bottom two with fellow favourite Ella Henderson, who was voted off.

After he avoided being knocked out last week he took to social media site Twitter to thank his fans.

The 24-year-old, who has nearly 656,000 followers on the website, wrote: “Thanks so much for voting this weekend I'm over the moon to still be here and that's credit to those of you who picked up the phone.”

And now everyone is being urged to show their support for the local singer with staff in Middlesbrough’s Cleveland Centre wearing T-shirts emblazoned with his name.

His sister, Sian said: “Can I just say, hope you'll agree. James is pitch perfect every week. Not one note out of place. No other contestant does that.”

Due to his success on the show he has already won a place on the X Factor 2013 arena tour, as the final seven artists will all perform.

Anyone wanting to follow his progress on Twitter should check out his profile at @JamesArthur23