Simon Cowell has compared his and Little Mix’s rival talent shows to the famous chart battle between Blur and Oasis.
The 60-year-old music mogul recently unveiled plans for ‘X Factor: The Band’ after the show’s former winners announced their own TV talent contest, ‘The Search’, and he’s looking forward to some "fun rivalry" between the shows, comparing it to the excitement in 1995 when Blur’s ‘Country House’ beat their biggest rivals’ track ‘Roll With It’ to take the number one slot.
Speaking at ITV Palooza in London on Tuesday (12.11.19), he told BANG Showbiz: "This is always supposed to be fun. So sometimes when you read the headlines, ‘CRISIS, I’m competing with Little Mix’, it’s brilliant.
"It’s like when Oasis and Blur were putting records out, you want that, you need that kind of fun rivalry, we’re competitive, we all want to win, it’s fun and that’s the way I take it."
Simon – who previously admitted to bringing the show forward from its planned 2020 air date to compete with ‘The Search’ – has urged as many people as possible to audition for the show and admitted putting groups together is one of his biggest passions.
He added: "I’ve always enjoyed putting bands together, I love it, I love working with groups.
"When we had this opportunity and I was looking at the logistics, we had five weeks and I thought, ‘Can we actually do this?’ And I thought, ‘Yeah we can but it all depends on who actually turns up’.
"That’s why I’ve been doing the rounds, radio stations, TV interviews, press interviews, to get the word out to people all over the country, you’ve got to turn up, you’ve got to give it a go."
Simon – who was joined at the event by his partner Lauren Silverman – is hopeful the show can start an entire music movement.
He said: "I knew K-Pop was going to be massive before it was massive, so when it happened being British I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I could launch UK-Pop, which upset a lot of people who loved K-Pop but you know… they’ll get over that.
"But I felt like it was the right thing to do and I love putting together groups, it’s a buzz."
Simon Cowell compares Little Mix show rivalry to Blur V Oasis
