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| Birth Name(s) : Simon Cowell |
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Full Simon Cowell Biography
Simon Cowell (born 7 October 1959) is a British artist and repertoire ("A&R") executive for Sony BMG in the United Kingdom and a television producer, more commonly known as a judge on television programmes such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, American Idol and Britain's Got Talent. He releases records and produces a number of TV shows through is company, Syco. Cowell is notorious for his unsparingly blunt and often controversial criticisms, insults, and wisecracks about contestants and their singing abilities, or lack thereof. He is often parodied in pop culture, in which all of his judging is neither constructive nor positive. He is known for combining activities in the television and music industries, having produced singles and records for various television characters.
Simon Cowell was born in Brighton, East Sussex in the United Kingdom and brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His father, Eric Philip Cowell, was a property developer and music industry executive, and his mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish) is a former dancer and socialite. Cowell's paternal grandparents, Joseph Cowell and Esther Malinsky, were English Jews, and his maternal grandfather was Scottish. He has three half-brothers; Michael, John (millionaire business development and marketing consultant), 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.
In 2004, along with Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Cowell was a judge on the first series of the British talent show The X Factor, which he created using his production company, Syco. The X Factor was an instant success with the viewers and returned three more times to its fourth series in 2007. In 2006, he was voted the tenth most terrifying celebrity on television in a Radio Times poll consisting of 3,000 people.
On March 16, 2006, Simon Cowell's next competition show, American Inventor, debuted on ABC. Fledgling entrepreneurs from across the United States compete to see who can come up with the best new product concept. The 2006 winner, Janusz Liberkowski, received $1 million and the opportunity to develop his idea into a business. The show returned again in 2007.
A British version aired in 2007, and was screened from 9 June 2007 until 17 June 2007, with ITV screening nine episodes. Fellow judges are Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden.
The Australian version aired in 2007 and was screened on 18 February 2007. Judged by Tom Burlinson, Dannii Minogue and Red Symons and hosted by Grant Denyer on Channel Seven.
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.
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. Grease Is the Word was 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.”
Cowell is joining forces with Shed Media, the company behind hit UK dramas Footballers' Wives and Bad Girls, to produce a new show called Rock Rivals which will be a new ITV drama series based on an X Factor type show.
In December 2003, Cowell published a book, I Don't Mean to Be Rude, But …. In it, he told the whole story of his childhood, his years working in music and experiences on Pop Idol, Pop Stars Rivals, 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.
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. Talking about Christina herself Cowell stated "She is an unbelievable talent."
On July 1, 2007 Cowell appeared alongside Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest as a speaker at the Concert For Diana, held at Wembley Stadium.
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 £34,600).
Cowell's controversial insults and wisecracks are rarely limited to just the contestant's singing performance, but also deals with their appearance, background, and character. Contestants of all kinds are frequently offended by what he says. In the 2006-07 season of American Idol, Cowell commented that one of the contestants "looked like a bush baby”. |
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