IT IS a conversion worthy of St Paul. Simon Cowell is abandoning pop’s profane world for songs of praise performed by Britain’s best young choristers.

The X Factor judge is bored of turning shop assistants into temporary idols. After amassing a £55 million fortune, Cowell is now seeking music with meaning. He has found salvation in the Church.

“Pop used to be my lifeblood but I haven’t looked at the Top 40 for months,” Cowell told The Times. “I discovered the power of these wonderful choral voices. I think this is the kind of music that people now want to hear. It captures a popular mood.”

Cowell sent a team of choral experts to Britain’s diocese and youth choirs. He said: “We had to find the six best choristers in Britain.”

Cowell is staking his reputation on the result, a group named Angelis, revealed in The Times today. Their members include the BBC’s Young Boy Chorister of the Year, an 11-year-old prodigy from the Royal Scottish National Opera and a singer plucked from the Oxford Diocese.

They are signed to the SonyBMG record giant through Cowell’s Syco company. The Angelis repertoire includes modern arrangements of traditional hymns, given a contemporary sheen by Stevie Mac, Mariah Carey’s producer, and updated versions of pieces previously sung by Enya and Eva Cassidy.

But record companies are gearing up for a bitter battle for Christmas. Universal is spending £1 million preparing All Angels, a female quartet aged 16 and 17. They feature Radio 2’s female Chorister of the Year and promise to deliver “classical, choral, opera and pop”.

EMI is hitting back with Libera, five South London choirboys, whose album is titled Angel Voices. Listeners can compare rival versions of Silent Night, which appears on all three albums. A surprise entrant into the field is the Fron Male Voice Choir from North Wales. Despite an average age of 66, they are preparing for stardom after being talent-spotted at a wedding. They signed to a label record and a film producer has snapped up the rights to their story.

However, Cowell’s conversion has sapped his enthusiasm for the teenagers who demand stardom each week on his ITV hit The X Factor.

“The choristers we auditioned were not stage school monsters,” he said. “They had a background in public singing and good parents who supported them. They weren’t starstruck. They just wanted to sing well.”

ANGELIC VOICES

Clockwise from top left: Moray West, 11, from Glasgow. National Boys’ Chamber Choir, jazz pianist

Sam Adams Nye 14, from Bristol. BBC Young Boy Chorister of the Year 2005

Natalie Grace Chua, 13, from Milton Keynes. Sung in West End production of The King and I

Joe Martin, 11, from Preston. Distinction at Grade VIII singing, pianist

Camilla Seale, 12, from London. New London Children’s Choir, Highgate Choral Society, sung for the Queen

Amy Dow, 11, from Cholsey. Founder member Wallingford Chamber Choir

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