Jump to content

This you HAVE to see


maxg

Recommended Posts

I am not a big fan of talent shows persay - and I only saw this one through a recommendation through Yahoo!

Watch not only the performer but the judges and the audience.

PS - You will need reasonable bandwidth to see this. On the page are links to his performance in the final too - quite a different presentation!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Max I posted that clip last year... as a singer.. as one that also is older now and does not also look the part..of a "20 something American Idol"... (I am not pretending to be in his league.. but I can sing, and love it too...) I cried , seriously I wept like a baby when I saw this when it first came out. You just made me cry once again...

What is it about a great performer... that gives his all and you can just feel that emotion in his voice...?

Look at Simon when he starts to sing..... Nice double take

Look at the woman 1/2 way through, she can hardly breathe and he brings her to tears too...

Beautiful... and I mean it too, just beautiful. Really cool the audience with this show in the UK appreciates it too. They probably would of (in bad taste I am afraid here) booed him off the stage in the USA. Or he never would of made it to the next round.

Just please help this poor guy get some serious dental work! LOL

==========

It may not be american idol fluff, but I wish there was a 40+ show to recognise out of the mainstreem, out of the blue, tallent.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Max I posted that clip last year... as a singer.. as one that also is older now and does not also look the part..of a "20 something American Idol"... (I am not pretending to be in his league.. but I can sing, and love it too...) I cried , seriously I wept like a baby when I saw this when it first came out. You just made me cry once again...

What is it about a great performer... that gives his all and you can just feel that emotion in his voice...?

Look at Simon when he starts to sing..... Nice double take

Look at the woman 1/2 way through, she can hardly breathe and he brings her to tears too...

Beautiful... and I mean it too, just beautiful. Really cool the audience with this show in the UK appreciates it too. They probably would of (in bad taste I am afraid here) booed him off the stage in the USA. Or he never would of made it to the next round.

Just please help this poor guy get some serious dental work! LOL

==========

It may not be american idol fluff, but I wish there was a 40+ show to recognise out of the mainstreem, out of the blue, tallent.

His teeth are completely redone already. His cd is out. Quit his job. Good luck to him! (maybe I would have kept the teeth as a reminder to myself and the audience of where I was coming from)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul Potts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

20px-Padlock-silver-medium.svg.png

Paul Potts

Born

October 13, 1970 (1970-10-13) (age 37)[1]

Origin

Bristol, England, United Kingdom

Genre(s)

Classical

Occupation(s)

Singer

Years active

2007 - present

Label(s)

Sony BMG

Paul Potts (born 13 October 1970 in Bristol, England), from Port Talbot in South Wales, is a British singer who became the winner of the first series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent, singing operatic aria. Potts had worked in unpaid opera productions from 1999 to 2003.

Contents

[hide]

//</p><p> if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } </p><p>//

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]

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 is on a six-month break as manager at the Bridgend Carphone Warehouse,

a mobile-phone store some eight miles from his hometown. He is expected

to make a decision about his job there within the next few weeks.[5]

He was a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bristol from 1996 to 2003. [6][7]

Previous work and experience

Potts first sang opera in 1999 in a karaoke competition, dressed as 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 Luciano Pavarotti and Katia Ricciarelli.

For the Bath Opera of Bath, Somerset, he performed on four occasions in the roles of Don Basilio (Marriage of Figaro), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Don Carlos Verdi's Don Carlos, the both the Prince of Persia and the Herald in Turandot.[8][9][4] He also sang for the Royal Philharmonic in front of an audience of 15,000 and toured Northern Italy as a soloist.[8]

Potts said he broke his collarbone

in a bicycle accident in 2003, an accident that prevented him from

pursuing opera as a career. The mishap and financial difficulties led

him to enter the talent show.[citation needed]

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 ITV in UK. The audition itself was held at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on March 17, 2007.[10] Paul sang a condensed version of Giacomo Puccini's "Nessun dorma,"

for which he received a standing ovation from the audience of 2,000

people. Potts' rendition of this has currently been viewed on video

upload site YouTube tens of millions of times and exists among Youtube's all-time most viewed videos.[11]

In the semi-final on June 14, 2007, Potts performed main verses of "Con te partirò." [12] He progressed to the final after receiving the highest public vote in that show.[13] 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 chance to perform at Royal Variety Performance in front of Her Majesty The Queen

In the United States, he was profiled on a National Public Radio programme called "Day to Day" on June 15, 2007. NPR is a non-commercial network that reaches several million people every day in the U.S. On June 18, 2007, a commercial US Television network, NBC, highlighted Potts's victory on its broadcast network's NBC Nightly News and on its Cable news outlet MSNBC. Then on June 21, 2007 he appeared live on NBC's programme Today.

During the programme there was some controversy[14]as

to the "undiscovered" nature of Potts' talent. He was portrayed on the

show as simply a mobile-phone salesman, whereas he had in fact appeared

in four amateur opera productions and in a concert for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra[8] and had plans for a summer tour with the Orchestra.[8]

Potts responded to his critics saying that he had not claimed to be

completely untutored, that he had never performed any concert for pay

and was therefore amateur and that the lessons he had received in Italy

had been paid for from his own savings.[15]

On July 8, 2007, Potts performed at a Katherine Jenkins' concert at Margam Park, "Katherine In The Park". Jenkins extended an invitation for him to sing his rendition of "Nessun Dorma" at the concert.[16] On July 16, 2007, his debut album One Chance was released in UK, and on July 22, 2007, the album claimed the number one spot in the UK Album Chart. On November 6, 2007, Potts appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to perform on a show whose topic was Youtube.[17]

In December 2007, along with Simon Cowell in his Rolls-Royce Phantom he was driven to Number 10 Downing Street to be greeted by the Prime Minister, The Rt.Hon. Gordon Brown MP

who presented Paul with a discography plaque for the acheivement of

selling 2,000,000 copies of his single and for showing that ".. Britain

really does have huge amounts of talent." - Gordon Brown, December 2007.

Personal life

Potts has been married since 2003 to Julie-Anne, whom he met in an Internet chat room. Sites, such as The Paul Potts Story,[18] have been created to discuss the human interest side of Paul Potts and why his story is so poignant to people.

Discography

Albums

Singles

  • 2007 "Nessun Dorma"
  • #100 (UK), #2 (Taiwan)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul’s potty over his winning smile





Dec 16 2007

by Andrew Dagnell, Wales On Sunday



PAUL Potts flashes me a grin. And why not, he’s got a lot to smile about.


Since
winning the ITV1 show Britain’s Got Talent in June, he’s headlined the
Royal Variety Performance, notched up 1.5 million sales of his debut
album and played concerts on almost every continent.


Not bad
for someone who was an unknown salesman working in Port Talbot’s
Carphone Warehouse six months ago and who, until recently, for pictures
always refused to smile.


But today, proudly showing off his
new dentures after vowing to correct his crooked smile, Paul is the
first to admit that money does make the man.


Sitting in the HQ
of Simon Cowell’s record label Sony/BMG in the heart of London, he
admits: “I’ve had a new set of teeth put in – they’re veneers. I just
wasn’t comfortable smiling with an open mouth.


“On the album
there’s no pictures of me with an open mouth. Even in my wedding album,
even though I do smile on some of the photos, they’re all with a closed
mouth.


“Now I can smile. I’ve never had the money to deal with
it, so I’d never really thought about it. I’m not a person that’s
really hung up on image.”


Paul vowed to have his teeth done
after winning the ITV1 show’s £100,000 prize – complete with a
five-album deal with Cowell’s label.


But apart from that little has changed.


In
fact, Hollywood teeth aside, there’s very little evidence of the
37-year-old’s meteoric rise since becoming the darling of the US
chat-show circuit and making it big in the Far East. Two giant-selling
record markets which are helping to make rags to riches Paul – who
first auditioned in a £35 supermarket suit – into a global superstar.


But despite becoming an overnight success, Paul seems less concerned about his new-found wealth than you might think..


He
shrugs: “I’m not someone to spend a lot of money on material things.
It’s nice to be comfortable and not worry about when the next bill’s
going to be paid. I probably haven’t made as much money as has been
reported – I certainly haven’t made millions.”


Not yet, I
intrude. He laughs nervously, and admits the showbiz lifestyle isn’t
for him, saying he would prefer to spend a quiet night in with his wife
Julie-Anne, 26 – or “Jus” as he affectionately calls her – who he met
in an internet chat room six years ago.


“We’re not materially
minded. I think the biggest thing I’ve bought, to be honest, has been a
laptop so that me and Jus could keep in contact,” says Paul. “We often
chat on MSN messenger when we’re apart. It’s a bit like going back to
how we started.”


And despite circumnavigating the globe, the
couple aren’t tempted to move out of their Port Talbot terraced house
which they’ve shared since marrying in 2003.


“At this stage in
time we’re happy where we are,” he says. “If we do move anywhere it’ll
be because we’ve outgrown the house – and if we did move we’d stay in
the area. The natural time to move would be as and when we have
children.”


And the patter of tiny feet could soon be on the
way following reports that Julie-Anne has been undergoing IVF treatment
to kick-start the process.


But like all celeb stories, Paul says the tale isn’t entirely true.


“Jus
has been having treatment for her ovaries,” says Paul. “At the moment
we’re trying to conceive naturally. “IVF is an option for the future if
things don’t progress naturally, but we’re not at that stage at the
moment.


“I don’t think children are something you can plan –
children are something that bless you. If you get too energetic about
it, the whole thing becomes a process and not something you can enjoy.
You can’t just order them off the shelf.” At the moment, it’s difficult
to see how kids could figure in Paul’s insane schedule.


In the
last month alone, he’s cracked the US market, starred on Oprah
Winfrey’s chat show and switched the Christmas lights on at
Bloomingdales department store in New York.


The jewel in the
crown was singing for the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance
earlier this month in a star-studded bill at the Liverpool Empire
Theatre.


“Six months ago I could never have imagined I’d have been in this position,” said Paul.


“I
was quite nervous about it but I did enjoy it. It was the main prize –
the recording contract was just a bonus. I didn’t cry but it was very
emotional and I did have to try to compose myself.”


And
although he hasn’t got any showbiz friends, he said he had an
interesting run in with Phil Collins while on tour in America. “When we
were over there, Genesis were playing and we were invited to the show,”
says Paul.


“When we got to meet them afterwards, it was quite
funny as Phil Collins said to me, ‘I was really worried about singing
out of tune in front of you’. Phil was always one of my idols when I
was younger, so it was a big compliment.”


Next year, Paul
kicks-off a world tour which will take in dates in the UK, US, Canada,
Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Korea and Japan. And at some point he’s
going to be recording a new album too.


“It’s difficult to say
what direction it’s going to go in, but Simon (Cowell) and myself have
had a few discussions already. I’ll have a lot of input into the next
album.”


And Paul says he’s hoping to get a couple of duets
onto the next disc – and he’s already got his eye on Welsh opera
sensation Katherine Jenkins and X Factor’s Rhydian Roberts.


“I
think Rhydian’s got a tremendous baritone voice. I think a duet between
the two of us is something that could definitely happen in the future,”
he said.


“He’s a high baritone and I’m a tenor – there are
plenty of those kind of duets out there. We’ll just have to see what
happens. It would be good to see another person from a Welsh classical
background do well.


“I’d love to sing with Katherine. I met her at the Royal Variety. “We talked about it and I’d like that to happen too.”


Whatever he decides, he’s already built himself a loyal fan base that will no doubt ensure his next album’s success.


“I
was doing a concert in Kent a and there were 30 women that were trying
to get through the security fence and jump on top of me,” said Paul.


“I told Jus about it – but she never gets jealous. Her attitude is that anyone who took me would soon give me back.


“She’s
a great example of how to live the marriage vows. We’ve been there for
each other in sickness and in health. But she’d describe me as the same
pain in the neck that I was before I won the show.”


Paul Potts –
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got the CD. Best way I can describe the mans voice is buttery. Very consistent and effortless regardless of what he sings. He'll get better with more professional experience but his voice is quite special now. Hard to believe he wasn't sponsored into professional singing earlier. Makes one wonder how many fairly well accomplished opera types are out there singing at shower faucets. The CD is from Simon Cowles record label I think. I'm not terribly impressed with the quality of the recording.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also bought the CD... a good 9+ IMO if you like anything like this. I wish Pavaratti was still alive to bring him under his wings... Pavaratti would love this kind of thing singing with a lot of different people in the "POP" music and the opera world.

BTW it is not all opera music... and 2 christmas tunes thrown in...

My kids heard the "You Raise Me Up" made famous by Josh Groban sung in Italian, and they said, "Daddy your better."

..... hehehe Man, I love my kids...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...