‘I financed it all myself’: BGT winner Axel Blake defends Amazon Prime Video comedy special

Some ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ fans claimed comedian was too established to compete on the show

The winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2022 Axel Blake has addressed the controversy surrounding his stand-up special on Amazon Prime video.

The 33-year-old property maintenance manager from west London was announced as the winner of ITV’s hit competition on Sunday’s (5 June) grand final.

This season of BGT has been met with claims that the show is “fixed” with some fans believing that competitors – including Blake – are too established to be considered fair contestants on the series.

The conversation has emerged again following Blake’s win, with many viewers highlighting the fact that he previously released a comedy special titled I’m Not Gonna Lie on Amazon Video.

The filmed set comes from his 2018 headline show of the same name, which he performed at The Indigo at the O2 arena.

Blake responded to the backlash during an appearance on ITV’s Lorraine on Monday 6 June.

“I put that show on myself and I just put my money where my mouth is and I achieved that,” he told host Lorraine Kelly.

He continued: “That’s the thing, it looks like ‘Oh my gosh, it’s Amazon Prime.’ But if they saw the backend, it didn’t look like that financially. All the stress, I had to borrow money from people.”

Britain’s Got Talent (Jonathan Brady/PA) (PA Wire)

“After that, Amazon picked it up. It wasn’t for Amazon Prime. I didn’t know they were going to pick that up, and that was like a year later,” he added.

Simon Cowell previously addressed the same criticism last week, stating: “I know you got a bit of stick in the media – ‘It’s a fix because you’ve been on another show.’

“That’s the whole point of shows like this, that you give someone another chance.”

Elsewhere during Sunday’s final episode (6 June), Cowell shocked BGT viewers when he appeared to question whether the Queen would be able to see this year’s Royal Variety Performance.

As the winner of the series, Blake gets to perform at the show – which is traditionally attended by the Queen – later this year.

Also on Lorraine on Monday (6 June), the host was sent into hysterics by Good Morning Britain’s Susanna Reid who cracked a joke about Boris Johnson amid news that the prime minister will face a no-confidence vote.