Record producer and manager, born in Brighton, East Sussex, SE England, UK. He left school at age 16 and worked as an office boy for EMI (1979), working his way up to become a record producer and starting his own label, Fanfare Records. He then joined BMG Records, signed a number of successful pop acts, and subsequently set up his own label again, S Records. The company has gone on to achieve sales of over 25 million albums. In 2001 he was a judge on the first series of UK's Pop Idol show, and again for American Idol (2002 ), and with his production company, Syco, he created, and was a judge on, a British TV talent show, The X Factor (2004 ). Known for his acerbic humour, he published I Don't Mean to be Rude, But... in 2004.
Simon Philip Cowell| Born: |
October 7, 1959 Brighton, East Sussex, England |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | A&R executive |
| Salary: | £18 million |
| Net worth: | £60 million |
Simon Philip Cowell (born October 7, 1959 in Brighton, England) is an artist and repertoire ("A&R") executive for BMG in the UK, but is best known as a judge on the television programmes Pop Idol, American Idol, and The X Factor, where he is notorious for his unsparingly blunt and often controversial criticism of the contestants. Cowell would later find pop acts who had acted on television shows.
Biography
Early life
Simon Cowell was brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His parents are Eric (real estate agent and music industry executive) and Julie Cowell (socialite, maiden name Dalgleish,from whom Simon's Scottish roots come).
Cowell started out in 1979 as a mail room clerk for EMI Music Publishing, where his father was an executive.
Fanfare Records and Syco Records
An interview with Extra later revealed that Cowell owed a bank about USD$1 million.
Burton and Cowell set up Fanfare Records.
One notable failure of Cowell's was his inability to sign the Spice Girls.
Subsequently, Cowell signed a number of acts to BMG that made a mark in the pop music world, including Curiosity Killed the Cat, Sonia, 5ive, record-setting UK chart-toppers Westlife, and surprise actors-turned-singers Robson & Cowell set up another label, Syco Records, in 2002 which later became part of Columbia Records and Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
Pop Idol and American Idol
Cowell became a judge on the first season of Pop Idol in the year of 2001, and did the same for American Idol in 2002 and his acerbic style of judging was a major reason for these shows becoming popular. 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", further proving his effectiveness as a villain.
Cowell's Syco 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. In June 2003, Cowell sold his half-share in Syco Records for $42 million to BMG, thus becoming a multi-millionaire.
I Don't Mean to be Rude, But…
In December 2003, Cowell published a book, I Don't Mean to Be Rude, But….
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 four young opera singers of four different nationalities.
X Factor
In 2004, Cowell created (under his production company Syco), and was a judge on the then new British TV talent show The X Factor, with Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh.
Lawsuit
Cowell was sued by Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller in 2005 over The X Factor, saying it was too much a copy of Pop Idol, but after a while, they settled out of court. The lawsuit threatened to block Cowell from appearing for the fifth season of American Idol, as Cowell's old contract had expired and he was negotiating a new contract at the time. Upon the settlement, Cowell signed a new five-season American Idol agreement with Fox.
American Inventor
On March 16, 2006, Simon Cowell's next competition show, American Inventor, debuted on ABC.
America's Got Talent
Cowell is the executive producer of America's Got Talent, along with Fremantle producers of the Idol series.
Celebrity Duets
Cowell also executive-produces Celebrity Duets, which can be described as "an Idol show for Hollywood superstars."
Guest appearances
Cowell appeared as a guest voice in an episode of The Simpsons ("Smart and Smarter"), in which he gets beaten up by Homer (while criticizing Homer's punches), and made a cameo appearance as himself in Scary Movie 3, where he sits in judgment during a battle rap (and subsequently gets killed by gunfire for criticizing the rappers).
Cowell introduced entertainer Dick Clark at the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards.
User Comments Add a comment…