by Ethel Smith

Created on: May 24, 2007

Simon Cowell was born on the 7th October 1959, in Brighton, England. He left school at fifteen and worked in a few different, menial jobs. None of these were successful and after constantly finding that he could not get on with his employers or colleagues, he finally began working in the mail room for EMI publishing. He got this job as his father was an executive for EMI and this helping hand paid off.

Having risen to record producer he left in the 1980's to form his own record label but it folded within a short while. After a few more attempts he eventually found some success, with the help of Pete Waterman, and Simon's label Fanfare. Simon released a couple of novelty records which is surprising when you think how he judged Chico in the X Factor in England.

He became a household name in England with the Pop Idol contests and the X Factor. He is now one of the regular judges on each series of American Idol and his fame is becoming Global. He also remains under contract with Sony. His fortune seems to go from strength to strength with many million dollar deals coming his way. At the moment he certainly seems to have the Midas Touch. It remains to be seen however how long this will last. As we know it does not usually last forever.

Loathe him or Love him, very few people seem indifferent to Simon Cowell. At times he can be rude, petulant, childish, arrogant and generally obnoxious. Other times he seems charming, sweet, thoughtful, caring and knowledgeable. Women seem to love or hate him in equal measure. Obviously a lot of what we see of Mr Cowell is his public persona and partially a publicity act.

What I think is true of Simon is that whether you agree with him or not he usually does know what he is talking about, as far as the entertainers go. He seems to have a gifted ear for knowing what will sell and what won't, what is great and what is bad and finally what will last and what won't. Apart from his talents though, he remains like a naughty, yet lovable, schoolboy who mischievously won't behave in front of company. I am sure Paula Abdul would agree with me on that score.

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