Cowell: The Brits are snobs

You might recall last month Simon Cowell was telling everyone how it was a good thing Leona Lewis didn't win a Brit:

"I was glad Leona didn't win at the Brits. It was the best thing that could have happened."

Only now, it turns out, he thinks it was a bad thing:

"Leona at The Brits tells you everything about the record business. I believe you should recognise and celebrate success."

Although not doing so was supposedly the best thing that could have happened.

What's really going on here is nothing to do with Leona Lewis, and everything to do with Simon Cowell's feeling that he's the victim of some establishment conspiracy:

"I don't like The Brits, they're too sarcastic. They don't represent what's right in Britain at the moment."

The Brits are too sarcastic? This from a man whose main schtick is delivering pre-written 'witticisms' of a "My Way? You should try it any other way" nature?

And as for "not expressing what's right in Britain" - if that actually means anything - if he's suggesting that the Brits should just give prizes on sales, wouldn't that make them the charts?

It's because the music industry doesn't like us show people, cries Cowell:

I believe you should recognise and celebrate success. You don't sneer at it and it doesn't matter where that artist came from.

"This is the problem. People say, 'Leona can't be serious because she entered X Factor.' They sneer. But shows like X Factor are there because doors have been closed. You have to start changing your attitude - give her one award for God's sake!"

This does miss the somewhat key fact that Lewis was invited to perform in front of the watching many, which hardly suggests the Brits organisers were sneering at her (unless we missed something - was ITV2 simultaneously showing people pointing and laughing?) and, indeed, shortlisted her for a number of awards.

And is it really true to say that X Factor exists to open doors which have otherwise been closed to potential artists? Isn't the ability of labels to generate easy sales off the short-lived backs of Chicos and Gareths doing more harm to the ability of young, talented pop musicians than it does good? Surely part of the reason EMI's regime feels confident about downsizing A&R is because they can just wait until a reality TV star turns up with a camera crew and a lopsided demo of them doing a cover of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful from Granada Reports?