Simon Cowell's Early Life:
Born October 7, 1959 in Brighton, England, Simon Cowell is the son of a music industry property executive. He has 3 half-brothers, a half-sister, and a multi-millionaire property executive younger brother. Simon Cowell dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and performed a number of menial jobs until he found his way to a job in the mail room of EMI Music Publishing, his father's employer.
Mentoring from Pete Waterman:
At EMI Simon Cowell worked his way up to being a record producer. He also met Pete Waterman, one third of the legendary Stock Aitken Waterman production team, in 1984. Cowell has said that he learned more from Pete Waterman in a very short period of time than he would be able to learn from an entire career with a major label. He formed the label Fanfare Records in 1985 with Ian Burton, and they achieved a series of top 10 pop hits with their artist Sinitta.
Successful Pop Music Entrepreneur:
By 1989, music conglomerate BMG was offering Simon Cowell a position as A&R consultant. In that role he signed such acts as 5ive and Westlife to contracts ultimately resulting in sales of over 25 million albums for his label S Records. In 2002 Simon Cowell formed the label Syco Records and signed such successful new recording acts as Il Divo and Pop Idol contestants Will Young and Gareth Gates. He sold his share in S Records in 2003 for a reported $42 million.
Successful Television Entrepreneur:
In 2001 Simon Cowell was hired along with Pete Waterman and 2 other music industry celebrities to be judges on the Pop Idol talent show in the UK. His arrestingly direct, and sometimes rude, comments in judging contestants gained Simon Cowell quick notoriety. Seen as a key part of the show's success, he was asked to take the same role in Pop Idol's American offshoot American Idol in 2002. In 2004 Simon Cowell was hired to produce the show The X Factor in the UK while Pop Idol was put on hiatus.
Simon Cowell's Pop Music Successes:
Signed Artists
- Angelis
- Curiosity Killed the Cat
- 5ive
- Gareth Gates
- Il Divo
- Journey South
- Robson & Jerome
- Bianca Ryan
- Sinitta
- Sonia
- Westlife
- Will Young
Simon Cowell's TV Successes:
- Pop Idol 2001-2003
- American Idol 2002-
- The X Factor 2004-
- America's Got Talent 2006-
- American Inventor 2006-
- Celebrity Duets 2006-
