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Simon Cowell 'Bans 'Voice' Judge's Song' From X Factor

Simon Cowell 'Bans 'Voice' Judge's Song' From X Factor

The reason is pretty petty.

James Dawson

James Dawson

It speak volumes for the enduring popularity of public humiliation that over a decade on from Chicken Factory Man's slaughter of 'Barbie Girl', at the end of each year, millions of viewers will again tune-in to watch Johns, Tims and Marys up and down the country spray litres of lukewarm piss onto the nation's favourite songbook.

You only have to google 'embarrassing X Factor audition' to find a Book of Exodus-esque list of twats and twatettes. Before Chicken Factory Man came Void-Of-Any-Charisma 'Mysterious Girl' Rapper, before him came The Sunglasses Pizza Delivery Michael Jackson Guy, before that guy came Darius. Ad infinitum.

But, you may have noticed that certain songs seem exempted from being performed on Simon Cowell's talent shows and, according to a source at The Sun, this is because the music mogul has a 'ban list' - meaning they cannot be performed in front of the judges.

Revisit Chicken Factory Man's legendary audition here:


Credit: ITV/X Factor

Although the full list of alleged banned songs isn't revealed, one of the songs on the list has been.

Apparently Simon has banned hopefuls from singing 'And I Am Telling You' as it is too heavily linked with Jennifer Hudson, a coach from rival show The Voice.

A source told The Sun: "X Factor and The Voice may both be on ITV now, but Simon still wants to be the best show and there's real rivalry there.

"This one girl tried to sing 'And I Am Telling You', which Jennifer sang in Dreamgirls, but Simon stopped her immediately and told her to sing something else.

"He did let her try another three tracks so it's not like he shot her down there and then."

Whilst we're talking about Simon Cowell I reckon it's worth you watching his first ever TV appearance because, frankly, it's fucking hilarious.

On the Channel 4 show Right to Reply in 1987 he pretty much looked and acted the same as he does today. However, fresh-faced and in his 20s, his voice was totally different.

Watch him speak here:


Channel 4

"We actually thought the thing was a joke it was so bad and as we began to go through the show we realised that these people were actually being serious," young Cowell says, channeling his inner savagery at an early age.

"If you're going to talk about sex you might as well make it informative and at least interesting and when we showed a video to our friends everybody agreed it was one of the most boring videos we'd ever seen in our lives."

But let's face it, you weren't paying attention to what he was saying, were you?

Featured Image Credit: PA Images

Topics: Simon Cowell, x factor