SIMON COWELL AWARD SPEECH

“Thank you for showing me the music business is a very nice business. One final thing, I want to thank Sonny Takhar for standing by me for so many years and I’m happy to announce we’ve just renewed a six-year deal [with Sony]. Thanks to [Chairman & CEO International of Sony Music Entertainment] Edgar [Berger], [Sony’s EVP and CFO] Kevin [Kelleher] and [CEO of Sony Entertainment] Michael [Lynton] for not just being great colleagues, but for being friends and supporters. I’m looking forward to the next six years.”

“WHAT PEOPLE FORGET ABOUT YOU IS THAT YOUR FIRST LOVE HAS ALWAYS BEEN MUSIC ABOVE ANYTHING ELSE.”

SONNY TAKHAR, SYCO

Edgar Berger, chairman and CEO of Sony International, praised Cowell for being “a fantastic exec at A&R and one that we all really cherish within the company.”

Syco Music MD Sonny Takhar said Cowell was a “brilliant A&R man… an exceptional promo person. He has the curiosity of an exec that’s just started”.

He added: “What people forget about you is that your first love has always been music above everything else. You’re a brilliant record man and on a personal level, I’ve learnt so much from you and I’ll always be so grateful.”

Chairman and CEO of Sony Music UK Jason Iley added: “Congratulations on being an amazing record, TV exec and entertainment icon.”

And Director of Programmes at Sony Music Entertainment Nigel Hall said: “You are unique, you are a star, and you are my friend.”

UK Prime Minister David Cameron paid his own tribute, commenting: “Simon, for many decades you’ve been boosting Britain’s creative industries, and filling the world with musical TV.

“Stars are being born, dreams are alive and talent discovered, all thanks to this great British figure in global entertainment. You might not have tact, but you’ve certainly got talent.”

For his final trick, Cowell couldn’t resist returning to the stage later on in the evening to talk about the event’s charities, and call Takhar “the most loyal, nice, hardworking pain in the arse… I’m in love with you,” he stated, before thanking Hall for leaving his “huge” job at ITV as Controller of Entertainment to join Syco. “I also love you,” Cowell ended.

Not so nasty after all.

"If you want to know what drives Simon Cowell, it's not relationships — with the possible exception of his mother, Julie — it's success, success, success," says one insider. Or, as
Cowell put it when he accepted an International Emmy Award last month in New York: "Whoever said fame, money and success will destroy you was completely wrong. Bring it on!"

Yet many believe Cowell has only made it this far thanks to the support of the small team at Syco, hand-picked by him and based off Kensington High Street, who share his workaholic habits and in return are paid handsomely for their loyalty.

But who are they, these unsung servants in the Kingdom of Cowell, mostly northerners, who have helped to make this small London-based company one of the most profitable and successful in the TV world in just eight years?

At the forefront is Syco Music's managing director Sonny Takhar, a 40-year-old former marketing executive at Sony, originally from Leicester, who Cowell says is "loyal and hardworking". Takhar, who owns a stake in the business, oversees a roster that is largely made up of talent-show alumni such as Susan Boyle, Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke.

 “The rest of the industry was obsessed with radio being the route to hits but all Simon talked about was television,” says Sonny Takhar