Britain's Got Talent winner Axel Blake has been forced to address the controversy surrounding his win after fans were left divided. The comedian stormed to victory during the ITV talent show's grand final on Sunday night (June 5) after initially being made Simon Cowell's golden buzzer back in the audition process.
The 33-year-old property maintenance manager from west London beat off stiff competition from teen ventriloquist Jamie Leahy and his chicken puppet Chuck, who came second, and singer Tom Ball, who came in third place.
Among the other several acts to perform were operatic busker Maxwell Thorpe, rapper and pianist duo Flintz and T4ylor, singer Loren Allred, comedian Eva Abley, schoolboy dancers 5 Star Boys, young environmentalist Aneeshwar Kunchala, impressionist Ben Nickless, and Amber and The Dancing Collies who was given the judges wildcard.
READ MORE: ITV Britain's Got Talent viewers name 'real winner' after Axel Blake's win sees them call for ban
But it was Axel who emerged victorious, with 19.7 percent of the overall votes, winning £250,000 and the chance to perform at the Royal Variety Performance. The comedian delivered another witty comedy routine during the talent competition’s final, including joking that he had heard a member of the public mistaking him for the rapper Stormzy.
Speaking after hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly announced his win, Axel said: “Words can’t even explain. I am shaking. Thank you everyone for voting for me. It means the world to me." He was then joined on stage by the judges - Simon, Amanda Holden, David Walliams, and Alesha Dixon - and his family, including his son who was seen wiping away tears in the audience.
Less than 12 hours after his winning moment, Axel appeared on ITV's Lorraine to chat to the show's host Lorraine Kelly who asked about him having his own show on Amazon Prime. His win annoyed some viewers after it emerged his comedy special, which is currently unavailable to watch, was filmed from his 2018 headline show I'm Not Gonna Lie at the Indigo at the O2 in London.
"I put that show on myself," he told Lorraine. "I put my money where my mouth is and I achieved that, but it didn’t…. It looks like, 'Oh my gosh, it’s Amazon Prime', but if they saw the back end, it didn’t look like that financially, a lot of stress…
"I had to borrow from other people, to say, 'Listen, I need to do something, I’ve already put the deposit down and stuff…' Then after that, Amazon picked it up. So it wasn’t for Amazon Prime. I didn’t know they were going to pick it up. That was like a year later," Axel added.
Following his final performance, Simon said that he was emotional for Axel following the routine, adding: "I really believe that we have discovered a star." David also added that this was a “winning performance” and that he believed he would “storm” at the Royal Variety Performance.
