Talk:Simon Cowell

Professional career

Don't you think that's something's missing here? There's a void in this person's life, a black hole. What happened to Cowell between 1989 and 2006. Someone must know. And another thing....... Is it of interest to anyone (or worthy of an encyclopedic article) that his paternal grandparents were Jewish. The fact that this may be true doesn't make Cowell Jewish, not that that would be very relevant either.Colin marks (talk) 07:21, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Someone please add a link to Rondo Veneziano.... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Trafficstar (talk • contribs) 06:26, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Personal Life

Income tax information was sourced from a Jeremy Clarkson article. This should be removed due to the context of a joke written in an article from an author known to exaggerate for comedic purposes. 131.202.11.233 (talk) 13:00, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

American?

He is in the category American music industry executives. Does he hold American citizenship, or dual citizenship of the UK and the USA? Whilst he is influential in America's music industry, if he does not actually hold American citizenship, then surely he should not be in said category. Werdnawerdna (talk) 21:35, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Looking at the category, although it isn't defined, it seems to be populated by "Americans who are music industry executives" rather than "People who are executives in the American music industry". Goodness only knows what the creator of the category had in mind, or its inherent laxity of definition, but on the basis of who's there already, he should go. Unless he has dual American nationality. --Rodhullandemu 21:49, 7 October 2008 (UTC)

Simon has 2 additional half brothers: John and June

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Early life

Cowell was born in Brighton, East Sussex, England and brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His father, Eric Philip Cowell, was an estate agent developer and music industry executive, and his mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish), is a former ballet dancer and socialite. Cowell's paternal grandparents, Joseph Cowell and Esther Malinsky, were English Jews, and his maternal grandfather was Scottish. He has 1 brother, younger brother Nicholas Cowell, and 4 half-siblings, Tony Cowell, Michael Cowell, June Cowell (who lives in Majorca with her two daughters) and John Cowell. Michael is the oldest, followed by John, June Tony, Simon and Nicholas, (in that specific order).

Cowell attended Dover College as did his brother, but left early before sixth form. He took a few menial jobs, but did not get along well with co-workers and bosses, until his father who was executive at the recording giant at EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room.

Sorry, can't make head or tail of this; could you edit it so that we can, please? --Rodhullandemu 12:12, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

I agree - this is difficult to understand because you have inserted your signature using ~~~~ in various places in the first paragraph. I have removed all of them for now - but made some construction changes to reflect what I think you are trying to write. If June Cowell is a sibling with one parent in common with Simon - I think she'd be a half-sister since the context implies a woman ("her daughters"). Please edit the above paragraph (I've inserted a <div> code to make the proposed changes more obvious Lachoneus 16:26, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Note on references - the added references "celebritywonder.com" and Hello! contradict each other in that CW includes a full sister that Hello! does not. Also CW does not have an article on Wikipedia - so I doubt it is a reliable source. Additionally, Hello! looks, from first glance, like a tabloid of dubious factual integrity; however it looks like it is a wide selling tabloid that has some editorial standards so it may be a reliable source on this kind of information. Lachoneus 16:54, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

This is probably nit-picky, but "until his father who was executive at the recording giant" should have an "an" in there before "executive". --Toney the ninja (talk) 17:49, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

and WESTLIFE?!!!

Westlife is an Irish pop band that was formed on July 3rd, 1998. They were signed on by """Simon Cowell""" and are currently managed by Louis Walsh. Over the years, Westlife's music has evolved from teen pop to an adult contemporary sound, with an emphasis on ballads.

The group's original lineup comprised Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, and Brian McFadden. Filan and Feehily are the band's lead vocalists. All of the band members are songwriters, although most of their hits have been composed by external writers. They garnered 14 number one singles in the United Kingdom, the third-highest in UK history, tying with Cliff Richard and tailing behind Elvis Presley and The Beatles. The band has also won numerous awards such as the "Best Irish Pop Act" at the annual Ireland Meteor Awards and ITV "Record of the Year" award in the UK. The band has also broken a few top records, including "Music artist with most consecutive number 1's in the UK" and the "Biggest selling arena act in the UK". Westlife have had 14 UK no.1's and were the first act in UK history to have 4 number 1s in a year. Not only that, they were the only band to have no.1's with their first 7 singles. All the rest of their hits have got to the top 10, if not the top 5.

For 10 years in the running, they have released six Studio Albums, one Greatest Hits album, one tribute album, one Cover Album, two Boxed sets, two Compilation Albums, twenty-six singles. All in all, it has been declared that they sold more than 50 million albums worldwide

• Looking at Westlife's article, it would be easy to get the impression that Cowell's influence at the start of their career was less than great, and their success is almost entirely due to Louis Walsh. In terms of this article, then, that would make it a minor detail. Unless you have a reliable source that says otherwise? Thanks. --Rodhullandemu 19:53, 29 December 2008 (UTC)

• • Looking at the Westlife article, it's not clear what Simon Cowell's influence was at the start but I don't see any evidence it was less then great. The article mentions they did not meet his standards early on and two members were sacked and two new ones brought in. Westlife then went on to have a very successful career and of the two new members, one is still a part of Westlife, the other left of his own violition and went on to have a mildly successful solo career. Of course perhaps the early band would have been just as successful if not more so but we will never know but I think it's fair to say there's no clear evidence the influence Cowell had was anything but good overall for the band (even if not for the two who were fired). Being a manager/producer does of course mean that you may have to sack people who don't meet your requirements and doing so is no clear indication of poor performance on the part of the manager. I agree though we need more sources to show Westlife was of any great significance to Simon Cowell Nil Einne (talk) 13:07, 10 April 2009 (UTC)

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Ethnic background

I see no valid source to validate the claim that his grandparents were Jewish. Therefore, that statement should be removed.

John O —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnnyorland (talk • contribs) 00:59, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

This has now been sourced.Dieter Simon (talk) 23:14, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Homosexual

This should be removed. There was no basis for the rumour, and he's very strongly denied it.