Simon Phillip Cowell is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of The X Factor and Got Talent franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on the British television talent competition series Pop Idol (2001–2003),
Professional career
Simon graduated from Windsor Technical College with a degree in sociology, after which he changed several jobs, including the set of Stanley Kubrick’s cult film The Shining. Conflicts with colleagues and superiors were the reason for frequent dismissals, and Simon was unable to build a career until his father, who worked at EMI Music, got him a job working with the mail. Simon showed himself well in his new job, quickly received a promotion and acquired numerous connections.
In the early 1980s, Simon left EMI to found the record company E & S Music with his former boss, but left the business in 1983. He then founded Fanfare Records with Ian Burton, initially selling instructional videos for aspiring performers and music from plays, including those performed by the Italian orchestra Rondo Veneziano. The first hit in 1986 was the song «So Macho» by the popular singer Sinitta, another successful step was Cowell’s collaboration with the trio Stock Aitken Waterman, who released a number of hits throughout the 80s. However, towards the end of the 80s, the company’s business began to decline, and in 1989 Cowell almost went bankrupt. After that, Simon got a job at the music company BMG as an agent for finding new performers. The career reboot ended in complete success: thanks to Cowell, several major hits were released, and a real breakthrough was the collaboration with the acting duo Robson Green and Jerome Flynn in 1995, when they recorded the song «Unchained Melody» with Simon’s participation, which they performed in the popular TV series Soldier Soldier. The song shot to number one in the UK charts, staying at the top for seven weeks, and became the best-selling single of 1995, while the duo’s self-titled album (called Robson & Jerome) became the best-selling album of the same year. They released one more album and two singles before the duo called it quits, and Cowell went on to sell seven million albums and five million singles, making him a millionaire and a major player in British show business. His subsequent credits included the popular groups Five, Westlife, and the popular children’s show Teletubbies.
Idol and Il Divo
Cowell became a judge on the first season of Pop Idol in 2001 and the first season of American Idol in 2002. Most American Idol viewers know Simon best for his harsh criticism of the contestants. He cemented his status as a man who could destroy any talent. Fellow judges Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson often cut him off mid-sentence, finding his outbursts inappropriate. His reputation as a tough critic has led to Cowell being associated with television personalities such as Judge Judy and Anne Josephine Robinson from the game show The Weakest Link. When compared to Anne Robinson, the host said he disliked her, saying, «I hate her, I hate her show, because it’s all a sham.» Cowell’s famous line, «I don’t mean to be rude, but…» has become popular; it was the first time he would discuss the talents of contestants on American Idol. Many of Cowell’s one-liners are believed to have been the result of his work with publicist Max Clifford. Simon also appeared on World Idol in 2003, a gathering of all the countries that had hosted the show, and found that every version of American Idol had tried to find someone like him, a sort of local «Simon Cowell».
He was parodied in the 2004 film Shrek 2.
In 2003, Cowell was featured on Channel 4, where he was voted number 33 in the «100 Most Horrible Britons». S Records signed two Pop Idol finalists, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom had chart-topping hits. In 2004, Cowell formed the opera pop group Il Divo, which included three opera singers and a pop singer of different nationalities. The group achieved worldwide success. Inspired by the popularity of Il Divo, Simon decided to create a children’s version of the group, Angelis, by holding a competition between similarly formatted groups at Christmas 2006.
