X Factor bosses have dismissed allegations that the show has been fixed for Amelia Lily to win, after HMV started advertising her winner's single online.
Fans visiting the music retailer's website spotted the item 'Amelia Lily X Factor 2011 Winner's Single' in the CD singles coming soon section - with no sign of either Marcus Collins or Little Mix's forthcoming releases available for pre-order.
This prompted many fans to accuse the show of fixing this weekend's result for 17-year-old Amelia to win.
Caren Davis, head of publicity for The X Factor, said in a statement: "This is absolutely nothing to do with The X Factor, HMV have admitted this was due to a technical error on their site."
HMV has since addressed the error, saying: "It's just come to light that there was a technical issue uploading details of two of the artists to our site, which meant that only Amelia Lily's details appeared.
"However, these have been temporarily removed so that all three finalists' details will go up simultaneously tomorrow morning. Once up, fans will be able to pre-order the single by their preferred finalist but only orders for the eventual Winner's Single will be processed and charged for."
HMV added: "This was due to an unforeseen technical issue, and nothing further should be construed from it."
The X Factor final is set to take place at Wembley Arena this weekend, with Tulisa Contostavlos' act Little Mix the current favourites to be crowned 2011's winner.
