What's wrong with Simon Cowell?

What’s the problem with Simon Cowell?

For many people around the world Simon Cowell is a familiar face- from A&R man, to television star to X Factor owner: Simon has built an empire from the ground up. Simon is arguably an incredibly smart man who appeared on shows like Pop Idol, X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. He also appeared on the American versions of these shows and was the head judge, the one auditionees wanted to get on their side, but is that all he was? That’s what this article sets out to discover. 

To know Simon means to listen to those who have gone through the X Factor and Idol machines and to see what they have said about Simon and his practices is certainly an eye opening experience. The X Factor, in the noughties, was a staple of our Saturday nights and would begin the lead up to Christmas. Viewing figures in the UK at their peak were 16-18 million per weekend tuning into the show and voting for their favourites every week. Advertising during the show was prime and companies paid the show incredible amounts of money to appear in the slots during the advertising breaks. 

However, things on the X Factor were not what they appeared to be and contestants were left wrong-footed and unprepared for the demands of the show, the contracts they would be forced to sign or the way they would be portrayed in the eyes of the media. Artists who went on the show spoke afterwards about how they were transported in blacked-out cars from one place to the next without knowing where they were going, were fed like lambs to the slaughter to the media and had intimate secrets exposed by the show to gain media attention. 

Further to that the contestants were all forced to choose between three preselected legal companies and told if they did not sign the contracts their careers would be over and they would be out of the show. They also had to pay the lawyer when an agreement was made to ensure that money changed hands. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Contracts signed would be at minimum 14 years in length and artists were forbidden from speaking out negatively about the show, their treatment or Simon Cowell. In fact, according to multiple ex-contestants, artists would be conditioned to say, ‘we’re grateful for the opportunity’, or something along those lines. 

Superstars such as Harry Styles have stated during an interview that Simon Cowell gave him anxiety and Harry has mentioned that while he was signed to Syco (Simon’s record label) and Columbia there were cleanliness clauses enacted within his and the other members of One Direction's contracts. What these clauses were we can only hazard a guess but as Harry stated that he felt freer upon signing his solo contract we can speculate that it was something disturbing. When asked on the Late Late Show, Niall stated that he liked Simon Cowell ‘sometimes’ and Harry has said that Simon ‘grew them in test tubes’ - alluding to the fact that, in my opinion, that Simon credits himself entirely with launching One Direction. 

Don’t get me wrong, he certainly helped but the discovery of the boys in One Direction was something of a miracle, in that he found five extremely talented, likeable and marketable young men who worked insane hours and had every type of merchandise available for sale, along with a movie, books and four tours, five albums in five years is something that shows how little down time the boys got, and how much they needed the break from touring and recording. 

Furthermore, other former X Factor and Idol contestants have spoken out about the closeting that occurs within the show and tells how queer contestants are instructed to keep their sexuality under wraps because it could alienate audiences and cost them (the show? The record label?) financially. Multiple people have told how unethical the practices are with producers personally telling contestants that they will not succeed in the show if they come out and as, George Shelly of Union J states, conditioning them to believe that their coming out would ruin the band/ their brand or their marketability. They also often times have public relationships with partners of the opposite sex to prove their straightness and to give the marketability (see Louis Tomlinson of One Direction who was marketed on having a girlfriend and that was it.) Other times they have no public relationships and are to appear available but never be available. 

Another unethical practice that was employed by Simon Cowell, Fremantle and those behind the scenes of X Factor was giving the contestants no choice of management company. All X Factor contestants had to sign a contract (four contracts in the same time period) to give their consent to be managed by Modest Management. The reason this was and is unethical is that Simon Cowell worked closely with the founders of Modest Management during his time at Sony which gave them an unfair advantage in grooming new talent to behave the way SYCO and Modest wanted them to behave. 

Yet another unethical practice is that contestants of the show, as young as 14 years old in the UK for X Factor, had to detail on application forms, their sexuality, their previous sexual partners and their relationship status. Rebecca Ferguson spoke at the Parliamentary Women and Equities committee  when giving evidence about the trauma she suffered while under the employ of Cowell and Modest. Rebecca stated that people were instructed to withhold calls from her children, that they were told to try to ruin her personal relationships and she was forced to work while medically unfit. 

This ties in with what Jesi Nelson of Little Mix exposed, in that she was injected with multiple painkillers per day and forced to perform regardless of illness or injury. Harry Styles has had to perform a sold out stadium tour while struggling to breathe and this went on for a number of dates in the 2014 European leg of the tour. Is it ethical to force artists who are so sick they can’t breathe or so sore they need extremely strong pain relief to perform for entertainment? Ask any person and they’d say no because a healthy artist will enjoy the tour much more than an exhausted, ill, sore and overworked artist could. 

The last thing I want to touch on in this article is something Katie Waissel mentioned during a space in the past few weeks. Katie has said, and I quote ‘Simon controls the media narratives’ and this got me thinking about all the news stories about celebrities that we hear and see. When Simon Cowell’s right hand woman, AnneMarie Sampson is married to a former editor of the Sun Newspaper and courts Dan Wooten and Gordon Smart then how much can or should we believe of media gossip. Dan Wootten is a household name in the UK and in the world as celebrity gossip and wrote exclusively for The Sun Newspaper for a large number of years. Gordon Smart was involved in the Xtra Factor and was also employed to help One Direction with their media training, although as far as I’m aware he didn’t work with other acts.  

When Louis Tomlinson had a false party boy image portrayed by the media in 2015 and his location was being deliberately shared by a member of the team, then should we trust what we are being shown? When multiple - and I do mean multiple - women are sexually assaulted by members of Simon’s companies or affiliates, TV shows and friends, yet victims can’t get justice and their truthful accounts get buried by stories about such and such’s conquests then why can’t we hold these people accountable? The media, in my opinion,  wants no part in it because they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them. To my mind, Simon, Sony, Warner and Universal often substitute the  stories they want squashed with other more juicy or clickbait stories to make sure that those names don’t get exposed and these predators can continue assaulting young men and women. 

Lastly, Simon’s new TV show appears to be failing and apparently there has been a change in direction by the show as it shows Simon battling his frustrations about not finding new singers who come up to the calibre of One Direction - however, don’t be surprised if it turns out a band has been found because it wouldn’t surprise me or anyone who knows how this industry works if Simon ‘suddenly’ finds this band after he’s given up, turning it into a story of how he’s still got the touch and can still put a band together. However- to the new band, if they are formed and if I am right, I want to tell them to be careful. All that glitters is not gold and this time Simon will make sure he owns everything including the name of the band so he can continue to exploit you long after your commercial success is over, or should you want to leave his label. 

Simon Cowell is, in my opinion, a devil in disguise. He wears many cloaks, but trusting him will only result in you making him money while you work your ass off for a pittance. Simon will own your name, your face and your media image. Is it worth it? Is fame worth giving all that up? I don’t think so and I hope you don’t either. 

BTC