X Factor guest judge Pixie Lott has told how she refused to be shouted down by Louis Walsh on the show.

She said: “I was just honest and said what I thought.”

Viewers last Saturday night saw a clip of the Irish judge yelling at the 19-year-old during an audition to be shown fully later in the series.

Louis was furious after she said “No” to an act he liked, turning red in the face and yelling “Why?”.

Simon Cowell had to give the Westlife manager a ticking-off, telling him: “Louis, she has got her own opinion.”

Cry Me Out singer Pixie said yesterday it was “really nice” of the X Factor boss to back her.

She added: “I’m used to being auditioned rather than auditioning people, so I had a lot of sympathy.

“I think it’s important you say what you think, otherwise there’s no point being on the panel.

“You’ve got to add a little something. It was good fun and I’d love to do it again.”

Pixie was a guest judge in Birmingham, replacing Dannii Minogue while the Aussie judge was away having baby son Ethan.

And she said she loved her time working with Cheryl Cole, which came just before the Geordie star fell ill with Malaria.

Pixie said: “I was there the day before she collapsed.

“She was so lovely. She’s beautiful, and up close she’s just so pretty.”

Pixie added: “It was so nice spending time with them and getting to know them a bit.”

Since recording her shows, the rows over auto-tuning and axed contestant Shirlena Johnson have erupted.

Pixie – seen performing at the V Festival in Cheltenham on Sunday – insisted she had never noticed the X Factor using the voice-enhancing system.

She said: “I’ll have to watch it and see if I can hear any auto-tuning because I think you can tell if it’s being used.”

But she admitted she feared for troubled contestant Shirlena, calling her performance “scary”.

Pixie added: “I’ve never seen anything like it.

“I was watching it with my dad thinking, ‘Oh my word, there are people like that in this world’.”

Source: The Sun