With the recent news of 'secret handshake deals' which includes a talented group called The Mend who looked set to take the upcoming series of X Factor by storm being booted from the show to keep himself from being seen to be 'fixing' his shows, I have to ask the question.... is he really a master at unearthing 'hidden gems' from amongst us hard working folk, or does he need to be spoon fed the next big thing from people who can really spot talent on a daily basis?
Simon Cowell has, with the aid of his many shows claimed to be trying to unearth talent from the very people who watch his shows and put fuel into his many flash cars by voting on said shows. While we do feel that we have overall control as the 'great british public' whom he so often professes to have complete trust in, is it just that he has positioned pre determined acts to succeed, with only tunnel visioned £ signs in his eyes.
Lets examine the evidence, and the now rapidly mounting claims to support this.
Leona Lewis- no one can dispute the fact this girl can really sing! however she had an album released years before he first stint on the show, which was later pulled, and was also groomed in the Brit School. Was this to allow for the illusion that she was unearthed by Simon and the show.
Ronan Park- The recent front runner for the last series of Britains Got Talent, came an eventual 2nd due to the much publicised rumours of him being 'signed' by Simon years earlier.
Katie Waissel- A finalist from the last series of X Factor, was dogged by rumours of a previous meeting with Simon, which led to release of photographs of previous promotional stills, and 'unheard' material, when she was knows as 'Katie Vogel'
Another aspect to consider is the 'winners' of his shows.
Joe McElderry & Leon Jackson - when Leon Jackson won in 2007 it was admittedly a major surprise as it seemed that Rhydian would clinch it at one stage. Since winning it Leon was given dire promotion of his debut album and was swiftly dropped after a Number 2 single, and Top 5 album. Whilst Rhydian has been quietly releasing albums and none have reached the heights of the top 5. I gave alot of respect for Dannii Minogue but was she brought in as a vote winner as a new face on his show to feed the illusion of that we are really in control?
Similarly Joe McElderry won in 2009, and also recieved dire promotion from the show and its executives, whilst Simon pumped so much into runner up Olly Murs, who was invited back to perform his second single on the show, and is steadily selling a few albums and is now the host of the Xtra Factor, and had previously 'dipped his foot in the industry prior to his appearance' whilst Joe was dropped within 4 months of the release of his own material. Was Olly already offered to Simon for him to consider and groomed for stardom, before we first saw him. and yet again was Cheryl Cole another popular face brought in to get her supporters behind a contestant to make it appear that Simon's predetermined favourite didn't run away with the show and to continue to feed the illusion?
Alexandra Burke- when Alexandra won in 2008 under new show mentor Cheryl Cole it seemed the right winner was chosen, and a string of ensuing Number 1's and top 10 singles followed, it seemed that we had SyCo etc getting right behind her, whilst once again JLS who finished 2nd on the show, have been promoted to the point that they now eclipse her, with Dolls, Movies and even their own range of condoms, meanwhile recently Alexandra has 'left' Syco, and Alexandra has always had to fight for recognition and is now already disappearing from the limelight while JLS seem to be going from strength to strength. Yet another case of a fresh faced judge and their fans being manipulated into voting for someone to make it a competition rather than a procession.
Will Young - Now the most vocal of the contestants about how difficult he found it after he won. Simon seemingly had already decided that Gareth Gates was his winner of Pop Idol, and after the show finished once again pumped millions into promoting Gareth, even engineering it so that his singles were to knock Will Young's off the Number 1 spot in the following week of it getting there. If it wasn't for the public's adoration of Will Young as a person and his obvious talent, and a record breaking million selling debut single off the back of the show, he would have surely been binned by the powers that be, and even after this he had to work so hard to forge a career of his own in the face of the manufactured Gareth Gates, even though Will had won the show.
These questions of course are very open to interpretation and could be debated for a long time. However further recent developments have to be considered.
Cheryl Cole & Dannii Minogue- while Cheryl seemed to be destined for stardom on the new X Factor USA, and was enjoying life over there trying to forge a career for herself, it has been widely reported that it was all a publicity stunt, did Simon Cowell use Cheryl as a pawn to further his own gain to get people to talk about his new show, because he was initially expecting the show to 'walk it' in the States, however didn't get quite his own way with the endearing popularity of 'American Idol' and also 'The Voice', and used Cheryl as a tool to draw the attention back to his show. There must be a reason as to the bad feeling between Cheryl and Simon.
On the topic of Dannii Minogue, despite being the reigning Judges champion cited a 'scheduling issue' as to why she left the show, but even her harshest critic Sharon Osbourne has recently claimed that she was 'thrown from the X Factor'. was Dannii becoming more critical of the behind the scenes operation, and bundled on her way.
Simon seemingly has constructed a team on the X Factor that will be grateful for the career boost they will get, with even talk of Tulisa's band 'N Dubz' apparently ready to split due to her work on the show (
http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/n-dubz/news/x-factor-split). With the exception of Gary Barlow it seems, who has always been a strong willed individual. I do feel however Louis Walsh is still on the panel as Simon's right hand man to give the new judges a gentle poke to remind them of the way a certain Mr Cowell wants the show to be engineered.
On the subject of the The Mend, once again i feel that they will be losing out on Simon's usual technique because of his new flagship show in the States, and he is aware that the press over there will chew him up and will have no quarms about doing so, if they get a whiff of a rigged contest, and has tried to distance himself from this at the earliest opportunity, and has cost a really talented band their deserved chance at a shot to protect his own ego, which is entirely wrong and against what he claimed to set out to do.
Of course this is only speculation, and to me the questions and points I have raised here should at least raise an eyebrow or two.
However, all isn't bad, I have had the opportunity of watching some of this years talent and have to say, it can be done, it will take hard work, and to some it can be the only way to realise dreams, but it has to be a major case of POWER TO THE PEOPLE! and don't be brainwashed.
