Britain's Got Talent: Simon Cowell breaks silence on 'fix' claims as singer Max Fox begs to perform and wins Golden Buzzer

In scenes aired during the final audition stage of Britain’s Got Talent on Saturday night (April 19), the singer called out to judge Simon Cowell from the audience and asked the music mogul to give him “a chance” to perform. After Simon spotted the keen singer, Max stood up from his seat in the auditorium and said: “Nineteen years I’ve tried to get in front of you, and I’ve never had that chance.

“Can you give me one opportunity and I can show you what I’ve got?”

The moment left Simon and his fellow judges, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and KSI, shocked before Simon invited him to the judges’ desk to discuss. After being asked by Simon if he was on the “wind up”, Max explained to the panel that he was a “local singer” who had previously applied to take part in the BGT auditions but been rejected.

KSI proclaimed that he had “never seen this before”, while Simon discussed the matter with the production team before inviting him to perform when all the other auditions were completed.

Later, Max took to the stage, telling the judges and audience: “I’ve been trying 19 years, since I was 16, to get in front of you. I’ve been in Manchester, in the football stadiums where you hold your big auditions, and I’ve never been able to.

“Luckily, I was 10 foot away from you sat here. I don’t know how I managed to get that seat. And I just thought it was worth the chance to ask you. I’m a local singer. It’s my passion. It’s my everything. I live for performing.”

Simon still seemed on edge, asking Max if his stunt was a set-up, to which Max replied: “I promise you, this is my dream. I’ve managed to sing in front of you. That’s my dream.”

The singer then wowed the audience and the judges with his rendition of Frank Sinatra's My Way, earning a standing ovation from the audience. The moment led Amanda to hit the Golden Buzzer on behalf of the chanting audience and send Max through to the semi-finals.

While some viewers at home were touched by Max’s brazen approach, other accused the show of being a “fix” in allowing Max to perform. One fan said: “What an insult to viewer intelligence that we believe this. What a fix. Time ITV took it off air,” while another added: “Such a fix.”

Simon Cowell preempted any claims of a fix before the episode aired, telling The Mirror that he would take a lie detector test to prove the moment’s authenticity. He said: "I think I should be wired to a lie detector machine in the future to prove I’m speaking the truth because when something like this happens people instantly shout fix.

"In this case do you really think I could be bothered to plant someone in the audience? No. But that’s exactly what happened.”

He added: “I knew it was genuine because of the way the security team reacted. He looked like he was going to try and break onto the stage or get to me. They were not twitchy and being hyper vigilant, tracking him. But I heard him say he was desperate to show us what he could do but hadn’t managed to get a place in the auditions this year.

“I went over to the producers and I said, ‘Pinky swear this is not a set up’, because you can’t break a pinky agreement. They said they had no clue about him. So we let him audition and it was an incredible moment. I just know people will say I fixed it, but I really didn’t!”