Paul Potts

Biography

Potts was raised in Fishponds, Bristol, by his father Roland, a bus driver, and mother, Yvonne, a supermarket cashier.[2] He has two brothers and one sister. Potts attended St. Mary Redcliffe school, where he developed his love of singing.[3] He also sang with the choir at Chester Park Junior School and with the choirs at several Bristol churches, including Christ Church.

In the interview that was broadcast before his performance in the semifinal, Potts said that he had been bullied in school, and that experience may have had an influence on his lack of self-confidence. He made a similar remark in 1999 — that his voice had always been a source of solace in the past when bullied.[4]

Potts was on a six-month sabbatical as manager at Carphone Warehouse in Bridgend, a mobile phone store some eight miles from his hometown. He has yet to "officially" resign from his position.[5]

He earned an Honours degree in 1993 from University College Plymouth St Mark & St John, majoring in Humanities, and was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bristol from 1996 to 2003.[6][7]

[edit] Previous work and experience

Potts first sang opera in 1999 in a karaoke competition, dressed as Luciano Pavarotti.[4] That same year he appeared in the Michael Barrymore talent show My Kind of Music. Although he did not take first place, he won £8,000 — enough to help pay for vocal lessons in Italy, during which he was selected to perform in front of singers Pavarotti and Katia Ricciarelli.

For the Bath Opera of Bath, Somerset, an amateur company, he performed leading roles on four occasions, after beginning in 1999 in the minor roles of The Prince of Persia and the Herald in Puccini's Turandot: Don Basilio in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in 2000; Don Carlos in Verdi's Don Carlos in 2001; Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni in 2003; and Radames in Verdi's Aida in 2003. [8][9][4] He also performed the role of the Chevalier des Grieux in Puccini's Manon Lescaut for the Southgate Opera Company in London, an amateur company, in May 2003. Additionally, he sang with a small ensemble from the Royal Philharmonic in front of an audience of 15,000 and toured Northern Italy as a soloist as part of his music classes there.[8]

In several interviews, Potts revealed that he performed Aida despite doctors' wishes to remove an adrenal tumor they had discovered during his illness from a burst appendix, and performed Manon Lescaux shortly after the surgery to remove it. Potts broke his collarbone and suffered whiplash in a bicycle accident in 2003, which prevented him from pursuing opera as a career or as an avocation. The mishap and financial difficulties that followed led him to enter the talent show despite not having sung for four years.[10]

[edit] Britain's Got Talent

On June 9, 2007, Potts' audition of Simon Cowell's new search-for-a-star show Britain's Got Talent was televised on ITV1 in the UK. The audition itself was held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on March 17, 2007.[11] Paul sang Giacomo Puccini's "Nessun Dorma," for which he received a standing ovation from the audience of 2,000 people. Contrary to popular belief, Paul did not sing a condensed version of the aria, but the full rendition. The editing process did not produce a "perfect" edit, as you can see his lips getting ready to sing the next line after his second "...Nessun Dorma...", which starts with "Tu pure, o, Principessa..."[12]. Potts' rendition of this has been viewed on video upload site YouTube over 20 million times and is the highest rated video[13] as of January 10, 2008 .[14]

In the semi-final on June 14, 2007, Potts performed main verses of "Con te partirò" ("Time to Say Goodbye").[15] He progressed to the final after receiving the highest public vote in that show.[16] He performed a full-length "Nessun Dorma" for his finale on June 17, 2007 as well as an encore after he won the competition. Potts defeated co-favourite with the bookmakers, Connie Talbot and received the highest public vote out of two million votes cast to win Britain's Got Talent, winning the right to perform at the Royal Variety Performance on December 3, 2007, in front of Her Majesty The Queen.

In December 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented Potts with a discography plaque for having sold 2,000,000 copies of his album "One Chance" and for showing that "Britain really does have huge amounts of talent.

Category:

Music

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[aries2125]

Damn, Britian has more talent than America...

[NAKAKATAKOTAKO]

you should look at the good side. i bet you can never sing like he does! Tiningnan mo kasi ang panget hindi mo tiningnan ang maganda.

[1966hero]

went to school with pottsy- he took some stick back then. LOOK WHO'S SMILING NOW. YOU GO ALL THE WAY MATE.

[Hamgammy]

@05marshalljw and look how many people care

[Luxord33]

Well said thewesp!!

[chrissylm37]

Gotta love those british teeth. I noticed he had his teeth fixed once he became popular.

[lvntblgz]

The song's name is Nessun Dorma...

[Jessivan83008]

whats the name of this song??

[juggling88]

The best in his voice is willpower!

[SalyMoe]

omg, i cried! lol

[05marshalljw]

i go to his old school

[neverThink123]

great!!!!