Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell
Born	(1959-10-07) October 7, 1959 Brighton, East Sussex, England,
Occupation(s)	A&R executive and TV producer
Notes
Cowell, S. (2003) I Don't Mean to Be Rude, But..., biography, Random House, ISBN 0-7679-1741-3

Simon Cowell (born 7 October, 1959) is an English artist and repertoire ("A&R") executive for Sony BMG in the United Kingdom, but is best known as a judge on the television programs Pop Idol, The X Factor and American Idol. He is notorious for his unsparingly blunt and often controversial criticism of the contestants. He is known for combining activities in the television and music industries, having produced singles and records for various television characters.

Childhood

Born in Brighton, England, Simon Cowell was brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His parents are Eric (property developer and music industry property executive, deceased) and Julie Cowell (socialite, maiden name Dalgleish). He has three half-brothers; Michael, John (millionaire business developer), and Tony (co-author of Cowell's autobiography), and a half-sister, June (who lives with her Spanish daughters in Majorca, Spain), and younger brother Nicholas Cowell who is now a millionaire property magnate.

Like his brother Nicholas, Simon Cowell attended Dover College but left early before the Sixth Form. He took a few menial jobs, but did not get along well with co-workers and bosses, until his father, who was an executive at the recording giant at EMI Music Publishing, got him a job in the mail room.

Career

His father's connections got him rehired as the assistant to an A&R man. From there, he worked his way up to record producer, but left during the early 1980s to form E&S Music, an independent music company. The label folded within a year of its launch, forcing him to return to EMI. In 1984 he met Pete Waterman, a DJ-turned-producer and founder of the then-aspiring Stock Aitken Waterman songwriting and record producing trio. In 1985, Cowell, along with fellow EMI clerk Iain Burton, again left EMI and formed an independent record label called Fanfare Records. It was Waterman who helped him regain success during the second half of the 1980s. Cowell would later describe in interviews (and in his autobiography I Don't Mean to be Rude, but...) that he learned more from Waterman in a short time than he could have in an entire career with any major label. Fanfare enjoyed success with its artist, (and Cowell's girlfriend at the time) Sinitta Malone.

In 1989, Fanfare's mother company folded, driving Cowell's business into bankruptcy, forcing Cowell, deeply in debt, to move back in with his parents. Later that year, he became an A&R consultant for BMG. Subsequently, Cowell signed a number of acts to S Records that made a mark in the pop music world, including Curiosity Killed the Cat, Sonia Evans, 5ive, Westlife, and Robson & Jerome. He also released several novelty recordings featuring the likes of wrestlers of the World Wrestling Federation, Teletubbies, Zig and Zag and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, that were huge successes. Cowell set up another label, Syco Records, in 2002 which later became part of Columbia Records and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Artists such as Il Divo and contestants from The X Factor and America's Got Talent are released on Syco.

In 2006, Cowell signed to two record-breaking deals. In the US, he agreed to remain as a judge on American Idol, earning £20 million ($38 million) per series for another 5 years. He also has a deal with FOX which allows his production company to broadcast Got Talent and American Inventor on other networks, but he may not appear on them. In the UK, he signed a "golden handcuffs" deal with ITV, worth approximately $13 million a year for 3 years, which gave ITV rights to his hit talent show The X Factor, a British spin-off of his Got Talent franchise, and a musical version of the X Factor to find the stars of a Grease production in London's west end. In late 2005, he signed a new contract to remain working for Sony BMG.

Projects

Cowell had been the producer and the creative force of many media, most notably Pop Idol and its international offspring. Beginning, particularly, in the 2000s, this has brought him worldwide fame and greatly increased monetary fortune.

Pop Idol and American Idol

Cowell became a judge on the first season of Pop Idol in 2001, and did the same for American Idol in 2002 and his acerbic style of judging (see Mickey Most) was a major reason for these shows' popularity. This was especially so for American Idol, where in its first season, word-of-mouth regarding "that nasty guy Simon" garnered media attention, more so than the hosts or contestants. Cowell's fame (or infamy) grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but …", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol program in 2003, where it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality. In 2003, Cowell placed #33 on Channel 4's list of the all-time 100 Worst Britons. Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have #1 UK hits..

Il Divo

Efforts began in 2001 materialised in 2004, when Cowell returned to his group manufacturing roots with his latest brainchild, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from many similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006.

The X Factor

In 2004, along with Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Cowell was a judge on the then-new British TV talent show The X Factor, which he created under his production company, Syco. The X Factor was a success with viewers and returned for a second and third series in 2005 and 2006 . He will return for a fourth series in 2007, alongside Sharon Osbourne, Dannii Minogue (near-confirmed), and one other judge.

American Inventor

On March 16, 2006, Simon Cowell's next competition show, American Inventor, debuted on ABC. Fledgling entrepreneurs from across the United States will compete to see who can come up with the best new product concept. The winner, Janusz Liberkowski, received $1 million and the opportunity to develop his idea into a business. The show returns again in 2007.

America's Got Talent

Cowell is the executive producer of America's Got Talent, along with Fremantle producers of the Idol series. The show was a huge success for NBC, drawing around 12 million viewers a week, and beating So You Think You Can Dance on FOX (produced by rival and Idol creator Simon Fuller). The show heads to Britain and Australia in 2007.

Celebrity Duets

Cowell also executive-produces Celebrity Duets, which can be described as "an Idol show for Hollywood superstars." The show is hosted by Wayne Brady, and its judges are Marie Osmond, Little Richard and David Foster.

Grease is the Word

Cowell also executive produces Grease Is the Word for ITV. Grease is the Word is the show to find the next big stars to play Danny and Sandy on the 2007 UK west end revival of Grease. The is hosted by Zoe Ball and judged by Brits David Ian and Sinitta and Americans David Gest and Brian Friedman. This hasn't turned out to be the success he imagined. Simon himself said, "It has been slaughtered by the critics - and rightly so. It is far too similar to our other formats.”

Rock Rivals

Cowell is joining forces with Shed Productions, the company behind hit UK dramas Footballers' Wives and Bad Girls, to produce a new show called Rock Rivals which will be a new ITV1 drama series based on an 'X-Factor' type show.

Other activities

In December 2003, Cowell published a book, I Don't Mean to Be Rude, But …. In it, he recounted his childhood, his years working in the music industry, his experiences on Pop Idol and American Idol, and finally, his tips for being successful as a pop star.

Cowell has appeared as a guest voice in an episode of The Simpsons ("Smart and Smarter"), in which he gets beaten up by Homer Simpson (while criticising Homer's punches), and made an MTV Movie Award-winning cameo appearance as himself in Scary Movie 3, where he sits in judgment during a battle rap (and subsequently gets killed by gunfire for criticising the rappers). He also appears in Shrek 2 as a judge in Far Far Away Idol, and also provided the voice.

He appeared on an episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (the British version) and Saturday Night Live in 2004. Cowell has also guest-starred (filling in for Regis Philbin) in the popular talk show Live with Regis and Kelly during American Idol's finalist week in early 2006. Cowell was once the fastest "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on BBC's motoring show Top Gear, driving a Suzuki Liana around the show's test track in a time of 1:47.1. When Top Gear retired the Liana along with its rankings after the eighth series, Cowell was the eighth fastest overall and the third fastest non-professional driver. Cowell introduced entertainer Dick Clark at the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards and also contributed in the 2006 Queens Speech to the Nation (UK) for which he chose the title music. He was seen on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice where he donated £25,000 for a fun fair ticket. Cowell has also appeared on the MTV shows Cribs and Punk'd. On Punk'd Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson set him up to believe his $400,000 Rolls Royce was stolen and had caused an accident by using a nearly identical car.

Cowell was chosen as the first 'victim' of the re-launched This Is Your Life in an episode broadcast on 2 June, 2007. He was presented with the Red Book by Sir Trevor McDonald while presenting American Idol.

Besides judging unknowns of the music industry, occasionally Cowell comments on already-established pop icons. For example, he opined in Esquire magazine that Beyoncé Knowles was overrated, and that Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" was one of the best pop records ever made.

Personal life

In late 2002 Cowell started dating longtime friend Terri Seymour. In 2006, British newspaper News of the World reported that he had cheated on Seymour with model and socialite Jasmine Lennard, and printed photos of her leaving his home. Photos of a visibly irate Seymour, (who was in the US when the story broke) being met at the airport by Cowell were later published in Heat Magazine. However, both Cowell and Lennard, who was also in a relationship, denied that anything untoward had occurred, and attributed the meeting to business.

Cowell has stated on many occasions that he does want to settle down and have children, Upon his appearance on Top Gear, it was revealed that Cowell pays more than £21.7m per year in income tax, suggesting that his taxable income is over £54.25m per year with income tax at the time approximately 40%. (NB: UK Income Tax 40% for earnings over £33,300). He is 5ft 9in tall.

He appeared on the gameshow Sale of the Century in 1990, as reported in The Sun Newspaper.

He is the godfather of pop singer Sinitta's baby.

External links

• The X Factor - Simon Cowell at itv.com
• Simon Cowell at IMDb
• Simon Cowell at People.com
• Video of Simon Cowell in his Ferrari
• Simon Cowell for PETA
• X Factor judges in homophobic row
• Simon Cowell on World Top 100 A&R Chart
• New York Times: How a Hit Almost Failed Its Own Audition
• Reviews and short bio of Simon Cowell
• Playboy Interview: Simon Cowell, February 2007
• Cartoon on "Off The Mark"