Simon Cowell always knew Harry Styles was 'special'

Simon Cowell always knew there was “something special” about Harry Styles.

The ‘As It Was’ singer shot to fame after being put into One Direction when he auditioned for ‘The X Factor’ in 2010 and the mu mogul can remember the first time he heard the 28-year-old star sing “like it was yesterday”.

He said of Harry: “I remember his audition like it was yesterday. He was very charming, he was very confident, he was very funny, and I liked him. I just thought there’s something… special about him… You never forget those moments and, like I said, genuinely if we weren’t making people’s careers successful, I would never be making these shows today.”

In 2012, Simon, 62, was working on ‘The X Factor’ in the US and he recalled giving Camila Cabello a chance when she thought she wouldn’t even be able to audition.

He told ‘Extra’: “When I was doing ‘X Factor’ here, that she wasn’t really supposed to audition and, you know, I happened to go backstage and I saw her crying, asked her why she was crying, and she said, you know, it was too late for her to audition because she was a reserve, whatever that meant.

“I said to her, ‘Well, I’m one of the producers, you just got an audition,’ and you know, when those moments work, and seeing Camilla today or Harry Styles, Leona Lewis, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson, there’s been so many times luckily where I’ve been there at that moment where their career is going to go in a completely different direction. If we didn’t have those things happen, then there’d be no point making the shows.”

The ‘America’s Got Talent’ boss admitted he is very “proud” that his TV shows have introduced genuine stars to the world.

He added: “That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of is that the shows we’ve made have gone on to do what we intended them to do, which is more than be a TV show.”