Simon Cowell’s right-hand man has revealed the secrets behind the music mogul’s new talent show, which aims to find the next big boy band.
American songwriter and record producer Savan Kotecha, 45, who has worked with the music mogul for the past 26 years, told MailOnline that Simon has assembled his trusted team of experts to help him throughout the process, which on Friday saw hundreds of young hopefuls attend the first day of auditions in London.
Savan, the songwriter behind One Direction’s mega-hit What Makes You Beautiful and Ariana Grande’s One Last Time, said Simon has ruled out having a celebrity judging panel like in the days of The X Factor and insists the show will be nothing like the old ITV series.
The boss of Britain’s Got Talent isn’t looking for the next Harry Styles or someone with millions of TikTok followers, but rather an undiscovered star with exceptional vocal ability and unrivalled charisma.
After travelling to the UK, Savan joined Simon at auditions in Liverpool and Manchester, as well as Friday’s event, and says they have potentially already met the next big star.
Simon Cowell’s right-hand man has revealed the secrets behind the music mogul’s new talent show which aims to find the next big boy band.
American songwriter and record producer Savan Kotecha (pictured) told MailOnline that Simon had assembled his trusted team of experts to help him throughout the audition process.
Speaking at London’s Shoreditch Exchange, where the first day of London auditions took place, Savan said: ‘Simon rang and said we were working with the old crew again and it’s like a high school reunion so it’s fun.
“He said I’d love some help, that he was going to form a new boy band. He didn’t really say much until I got to the UK. He was a bit vague, but we always need each other. He told me about it and I said yeah, I was fine with it, let’s do it again.
‘First, we look for someone who has a lot of charisma and vocal ability, and if they can write, that’s fantastic, but first and foremost, we look for vibe.
‘It’s helpful to have followers, but I still believe that if you put someone who’s really talented out into the world, they’ll get followers. I want to know if they’re talented, so when we put them out into the world, they’ll grow.
‘To be honest, it’s about personality. More than a person’s appearance, it’s more about their charisma, their personality and their energy. That’s the biggest change. It’s a presence that changes the energy. Some of the biggest stars I’ve worked with, even when your back is to the door and they walk in, you feel a change.
“Harry Styles is unique, so we’re not going to go looking for him. We’re going to go looking for the best talents, charismatic guys, whatever, that’s what it is.”
Simon, who arrived at lunchtime on Friday wearing a grey T-shirt, shorts and sunglasses, greeted queuing contestants and petted a dog before heading into the venue.
He was surrounded by camera crews as his search for the next boy band was filmed for a new Netflix series called The Midas Touch.
Savan, who joins Simon on his panel of music specialists, wrote One Direction hit What Makes You Beautiful about his wife.
He’s also the man behind Ariana Grande’s hits Bang, Bang, Problems and One Last Time, which he says is his all-time favorite song he’s worked on.
The response from aspiring boy band singers aged 16 to 18 has prompted Simon to add an extra day to the audition process in east London.
And Savan, who is from Texas, says joining forces with Simon on the project has so far allowed the musical duo to bond over their long-standing partnership.
In fact, it was Simon who gave Savan his big break in the music industry, working with Westlife, before his experience led him to collaborate with some of pop’s most successful artists.
He said: ‘My relationship with Simon has changed over the years. It used to be that he was a big record executive and I was a newbie songwriter, but we have a lot of history, so there’s a lot of stories and we’re joking around.
‘Simon was my first record company that I met when I was 19 and a new songwriter and I’m 45 now. It gave me my first big break with Westlife, it was a bonus track called Bad Girls, which is really bad now, but after that I did more stuff like Obvious and Us Against the World.
‘Since then, I’ve done One Direction’s What Makes You Beautiful, which is about my wife, Can’t Feel My Face, The Weeknd, Love Me Like You Do, Ellie Goulding, a bunch of Ariana Grande’s big hits, Bang, Bang, Problems, One Last Time, How Do You Sleep? by Sam Smith.’
Savan says Simon realises that the popularity of boy bands has been in decline since One Direction split in 2015.
But the former X Factor judge hopes his new talent show will rejuvenate the younger generation’s desire for boy bands and recreate the same hysteria felt by The Beatles and 80s group New Kids on the Block.
Hundreds of aspiring singers attended auditions in London on Friday hoping to impress music boss Simon with their vocal ability.
Savan said: ‘People haven’t taken the time to form boy bands.
‘So, this is great, having auditions where people need to show up, it’s very easy for kids to want to make music and pick up an instrument and go online, but this kind of community building is unmatched.
‘I love pop music and I love boy bands, my sister was a fan of New Kids on the Block, she was super introverted, but when they happened I remember all her friends were around and a community was created.
“Bands do that, not just with each other but with the public as well. We need that in the world, there are a lot of people who feel isolated, there is a lot of division everywhere and we need to come together again.
“That’s what makes Simon great, he takes risks, he doesn’t do the easy thing because it’s not easy. A lot of the UK record industry has been signing deals based on data rather than gut feeling and if it doesn’t work out they move on to something else, but Simon has historically been one of those people who puts something together and makes it great.”