Amelia Lily visits home ahead of X Factor Final

More rumours emerged yesterday that The X Factor is a fix after Amelia Lily’s ‘winner’s single’ was made available for pre-order on HMV’s website.

But the 17-year-old singer decided to put the scandal behind her today as she returned to her hometown of Middlesbrough ahead of the show final this weekend.

Dressed in a tight black dress with a pink faux fur coat to match her pale pink hair, Amelia looked delighted as she caught up with her former classmates at Teesside High School and treated them to a quick performance in the school hall.

The teenager was greeted by crowds of pupils all armed with signs congratulating Amelia on reaching the final as she made her way into the school.

Amelia will be facing off against girl group Little Mix and Liverpudlian Marcus Collins in the X Factor final this weekend.

But reports yesterday suggested the winner had already been chosen, after HMV gave fans the chance to pre-order the winning track.

While all three finalists have pre-recorded their single to go on sale immediately after the winner is announced this weekend, only Amelia’s appeared on the website.

An immediate Twitter storm ensued, causing the HMV site to crash as curious fans flooded the website to see for themselves.

However, HMV spokesperson Gennaro Castaldo said: ‘Hmv.com was looking to accept customer pre-orders for versions of the X Factor winner’s single recorded by each of the three finalists.

‘However, due to a technical issue only Amelia Lily’s details were uploaded. These have been temporarily removed so that all three finalists’ details can go up at the same time.

‘This has been the result of an unforeseen but regrettable technical issue, for which we apologise and ask that nothing further be construed.’

Despite the explanation, social networking sites went into overdrive as X Factor fans speculated over the repeated ‘fix’ blunders that have plagued the show this season.

But the stress of the ‘fix’ claims is said to have left Amelia feeling even more exhausted and concerned about the final.

She is even thought to have contracted laryngitis and is suffering from strained vocal cords as the gruelling promotional schedule, which sees finalists practise for 12 to 14 hours every day, takes its toll.

A source told The Sun: ‘Amelia Lily has been under the most amount of pressure out of anyone and she’s just 17. She is fiercely ambitious but she hasn’t had the chance to grow up yet.

‘Her voice is her biggest weapon but this week singing has started to hurt and she’s worried. It’s stress on top of stress.’