Photo: WENN
X Factor boss Simon Cowell has responded to the controversy surrounding contestant Fleur East's cover of Mark Ronson's 'Uptown Funk'.
Earlier this week, Fleur East has apologised to Ronson after her cover of his song caused him to release it five weeks early - with her version of the track released after her performance on the show and reaching No.1 on the iTunes chart.
Now, speaking to Digital Spy, Cowell has insisted that the move was not a corporate ploy between Ronson's label Sony and Cowell's own SyCo.
"The other one is nothing to do with me," said Cowell. "I mean it's part Sony, but there was all the nonsense about what was it called?"
Responding to the notion of 'industry corruption' (that originated with a skeptical tweet from Lily Allen), Cowell replied: "I mean give me a break.
"I didn't know what label it was on, to be honest with you. All I knew was that we loved the song and then we heard that Mark Ronson and Bruno [Mars] were going to do it on the final, so we stopped doing it with Fleur and then I found out Thursday they weren't coming so I thought fine, I'll do it with her."
Watch Fleur East's cover of 'Uptown Funk' below
Watch Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars 'Uptown Funk' below
Speaking to Newsbeat about the furore earlier this week, East said: "Yeah I'm really sorry, but all I can say is it's props to all their creative hard work because it's an amazing song. I don't know what they were thinking in their minds. I don't think anyone expected my performance to be as popular as it was. We didn't expect it to go to number one on iTunes. That's crazy like."
As for whether her cover might affect Ronson's chances of reaching No.1, she said: "It would be a shame in many ways, obviously because it was their song and they created it, it would only be right that theirs got to number one."
'Uptown Funk' is the first single from Ronson's new album Uptown Special, which is due for release in January.
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