THE furious friend of talented teenager Valentina O'Kelly today branded a TV singing competition a farce after the schoolgirl lost out on a trip to America to meet boyband NSYNC.

Jenny Howlett claimed the 14-year-old Mansfield High School pupil of Albert Street, Brierfield, received no votes in the Saturday Show talent poll because her phoneline was dead.

But producers of the BBC One programme today denied the assertion and said the lines were regularly checked before and during the live phone vote.

They said Valentina's line received thousands of calls during the competition.

Valentina had high hopes when she reached the final after previous triumphs in a national contest at Liverpool's Cavern Club as well as the Starquest competition in Nelson.

She was competing against three other finalists and sang Girlfriend by her favourite band -- NSYNC -- but was beaten to the prize of a trip to the States to meet her heroes.

Viewers of the show hosted by Dani Behr were asked to vote for the winner through four dedicated phonelines.

But O'Kelly family friend Jenny Howlett said Valentina lost because of a fault with her line. She said: "No one could get through. The line was dead. Valentina knew nothing about it and congratulated the winner. She found out afterwards.

"I got in touch with the BBC and said there was a fault on the line. She has relatives in Liverpool and London and nobody could get through.

"I am fuming. She has not had a fair chance."

Valentina said: "I'm really upset because I was told I had a one in four chance of winning. When I lost I thought 'OK, I haven't won' and hugged and congratulated the girl who had.

"But then I found out I didn't even have one per cent of the votes and it was just my phone line. I was crying and really upset. I thought I had a fairly good chance of winning this."

Despite the upset Valentina said she would not be put off entering another TV talent contest and would continue to sing in other competitions.

A BBC spokesman said: "There is absolutely no truth in saying she didn't get any votes.

"She got a lot of votes and the three runners-up were all close in the number of votes they received. But the person who won was way ahead.

"The phone lines were checked before, during and after the vote and they were all working fine.

"They were checked by an independent company. Valentina got a very respectable number of votes -- somewhere in the thousands."