The most powerful man in music and reality TV has his eyes on Australia’s next big talent as the film and production of X-Factor Australia’s season 7 draws to an end.
Cowell gushed about Australian talent and is quoted in saying, “I like the Australian show, it is really well produced and it is fun.
“I couldn’t make it (to Australia), so I joked ‘why don’t they bring everyone over here’ and they went ‘OK, fine’.
“I actually would have preferred to go over there but I couldn’t.”
Cowell will however appear alongside judges Guy Sebastian, James Blunt, Dannii Minogue and Chris Isaak when The X Factor Australia’s seventh series premieres next month.
“There’s a kind of a bit of a swagger coming from Australia right now and I like that,” Cowell told Insider.
“What I’ve seen over the years is just how much better the contestants have got in terms of being able to compete with the world. There’s no longer a sort of chip on anyone’s shoulder going we are a smaller country population-wise than England or America, so we can’t do well.”
“You’ve got to do well enough on the show to attract the writers who are going to write the song, it is a chain reaction,” cautioned Cowell.
“It will happen, hopefully it will be this year. I have seen a contestant, I’m not going to say who they are, but I’ve just got a really, really good feeling about them.”
The show’s contestants are grouped into under-25 males, under-25 females, over-25s and groups, each allocated a judge to mentor them through the season.
“Interestingly, the younger contestants have worked it out better than the older contestants,” Cowell says.
“It looks like they absolutely know what’s going on, whereas the older ones come in and sing a nice song and think ‘that should get me through’. That’s fine but where do you fit in the real world if you win and that is kind of a problem.”
It’s his first official appearance on any of the Australian formats, although he’s very hands-on and has kept on top of contestants each season on The X Factor.
The new season X Factor Australia premieres on Channel 7 in September.
Images: Facebook via X Factor Australia