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Paul Potts

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Paul Potts

Paul Robert Potts (born 13 October 1970 in Bristol, England), from Port Talbot in South Wales, is a British tenor who in 2007 became the winner of the first series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent, singing an operatic aria, "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot. Potts had worked in unpaid opera productions from 1999 to 2003.

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. On March 5, 2008, he resigned from his management position via email. [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]

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]

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 'snigga royale with cheese' 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 was the highest rated video[13] on 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."[17]

Recent activity

In the United States, he was profiled on a National Public Radio programme called "Day to Day" on June 15, 2007. On June 18, 2007, a commercial US Television network, NBC, highlighted Potts' 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[18]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 six 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.[19]

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.[20] 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.[21] On November 24 2007, Potts was interviewed on the National Public Radio programme Weekend Edition Saturday.

On December 13, 2007, he performed in Leipzig in the live television broadcast of the 13th annual José Carreras Gala, accompanied by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg under the direction of Scott Lawton.[1]

On January 17, 2008, exactly six months to the day after winning Britain's Got Talent, he began his 2008 Concert Series at the Pavilion Theatre[22] in Rhyl, U.K., which will be covering 65 cities across 13 countries. His current concert schedule ends on June 9, 2008, exactly one year after his first appearance on Britain's Got Talent.

Personal life

Potts has been married since May 2003 to the former Julie-Ann Cooper, whom he met in an Internet chat room. They connected in-person for the first time at the Swansea Railway Station in February, 2001. Julie-Ann had the upper hand at this "first meeting" as she had a photograph of Paul, but he had no idea what she looked like.[23]

Discography

Albums

Singles

Current Tour Dates

United Kingdom
Date City Country Venue
January 17 2008 Rhyl United Kingdom Pavilion Theatre
January 18 2008 Rhyl United Kingdom Pavilion Theatre
January 19 2008 Peterborough United Kingdom The Broadway
January 21 2008 Cambridge United Kingdom Corn Exchange
January 22 2008 Nottingham United Kingdom Royal Centre
January 23 2008 Harrogate United Kingdom International Centre
January 25 2008 Aberdeen United Kingdom Music Hall
January 26 2008 Glasgow United Kingdom Clyde Auditorim
January 27 2008 Edinburgh United Kingdom Playhouse
January 29 2008 Newcastle-Upon-Tyne United Kingdom City Hall
January 30 2008 Sheffield United Kingdom City Hall
February 1 2008 Cardiff United Kingdom International Arena
February 2 2008 Manchester United Kingdom Bridgewater Hall
February 3 2008 Liverpool United Kingdom Empire Theatre
February 5 2008 Brighton United Kingdom The Brighton Centre
February 6 2008 Oxford United Kingdom New Oxford Theatre
February 8 2008 Plymouth United Kingdom Plymouth Pavilions
February 9 2008 Portsmouth United Kingdom Guildhall
February 11 2008 Bristol United Kingdom Hippodrome
February 12 2008 Birmingham United Kingdom Symphony Hall
February 13 2008 Birmingham United Kingdom Symphony Hall
February 15 2008 Stoke-On-Trent United Kingdom Victoria Hall
February 16 2008 Ipswich United Kingdom Regent Theatre
February 17 2008 London United Kingdom Hammersmith Apollo
North America
Date City Country Venue
March 1 2008 Hollywood, Florida United States Seminole Casino
March 2 2008 Tampa, Florida United States Tampa Theater
March 3 2008 Washington, DC United States Lisner Auditorium
March 5 2008 Ledyard, Connecticut United States Foxwoods Casino
March 6 2008 Westbury, New York United States North Fork Theater
March 8 2008 Atlantic City United States Borgata Hotel
March 9 2008 Boston United States Berklee Performance Center
March 11 2008 New York City United States Town Hall
March 13 2008 Hamilton, Ontario Canada Hamilton Place Theatre
March 14 2008 Montréal Canada Place des Arts
March 15 2008 Toronto Canada Roy Thomson Hall
March 17 2008 Ottawa Canada Centrepointe Theatre
March 19 2008 Edmonton Canada Winspear Centre for Music
March 20 2008 Vancouver Canada Centre for Performing Arts
March 22 2008 Victoria, British Columbia Canada McPherson Playhouse
March 24 2008 Calgary Canada Jack Singer Concert Hall
March 26 2008 Los Angeles United States The Wiltern
March 27 2008 Mesa, Arizona United States Ikeda Theater
March 29 2008 Mexico City Mexico Teatro Metropolitan
March 30 2008 Mexico City Mexico Teatro Metropolitan
Oceania and Asia
Date City Country Venue
April 6 2008 Christchurch New Zealand Town Hall Auditorium
April 8 2008 Wellington New Zealand Michael Fowler Centre
April 11 2008 Rotorua New Zealand Energy Events Centre
April 13 2008 Auckland New Zealand Aotea Centre
April 16 2008 Adelaide Australia Festival Theatre
April 18 2008 South Brisbane Australia QPAC Concert Hall
April 20 2008 Sydney Australia Sydney Opera House
April 21 2008 Melbourne Australia Hamer Hall
April 23 2008 Perth Australia Burswood Theatre
April 29 2008 Tokyo Japan Bunkamura Hall
April 30 2008 Tokyo Japan Bunkamura Hall
May 3 2008 Seoul South Korea Welch-Ryang Auditorium
May 4 2008 Seoul South Korea Welch-Ryang Auditorium
May 5 2008 Seoul South Korea Welch-Ryang Auditorium
May 7 2008 Busan South Korea KBS Hall
Europe
Date City Country Venue
May 13 2008 Hillerød Denmark Frederiksborg Slot
May 14 2008 Copenhagen Denmark Falkoner Theatre
May 15 2008 Copenhagen Denmark Falkoner Theatre
May 17 2008 Randers Denmark Estrup
May 18 2008 Aalborg Denmark Skovdalen
May 20 2008 Odense Denmark Amfiteater
May 22 2008 Stockholm Sweden Solnahallen
May 23 2008 Malmö Sweden Icehall
May 24 2008 Göteborg Sweden Lisebergshallen
May 26 2008 Malmö Sweden Icehall
May 27 2008 Oslo Norway Oslo Konserthus
May 31 2008 Odense Denmark Amfiteater
June 1 2008 Copenhagen Denmark Ballerup Super Arena
June 3 2008 Herning Denmark Messecentre
June 4 2008 Sønderborg Denmark Sønderborg Castle
June 6 2008 Helsinki Finland Finlandia Hall
June 8 2008 Amsterdam Netherlands Heineken Music Hall
June 9 2008 Amsterdam Netherlands Heineken Music Hall

References

  1. ^ "Biography".
  2. ^ http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001320029-2007280255,00.html - Don't Talk out of Your Arias
  3. ^ http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmedm/70620e01.htm - Early Day Motions
  4. ^ a b c ITV - Britain's Got Talent - Paul Potts
  5. ^ Live in concert at Foxwoods Hotel and Casino in Ledyard, CT, March 5, 2008
  6. ^ Paul Potts is a Marjon graduate. roadturn.com
  7. ^ Lib Dems Site Retrieved 22 July 2007
  8. ^ a b c d Bathopera.co.uk - Don Carlos Biographies
  9. ^ Bathopera.co.uk - Aida Biographies
  10. ^ http://forum.unrealitytv.co.uk/index.php?topic=1533.0 Retrieved 30 Dec 2007
  11. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/music/sites/paul_potts/pages/biography.shtml - BBC - Wales Music
  12. ^ Britain's Got Talent
  13. ^ Paul Pott’s YouTube Clip Most Highly Rated EVER! - Unreality TV
  14. ^ Paul Potts sings Nessun Dorma on YouTube
  15. ^ "Paul Potts - Time to Say Goodbye".
  16. ^ "Semi-final one - the public decides". itv.com. 2007-06-14. Retrieved 2007-06-15. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Luciano Pavarotti
  18. ^ http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2001320029-2007270918,00.html - Controversy from Viewers
  19. ^ This is my lifelong dream, says the singing salesman The Guardian, June 17 2007
  20. ^ "Talent show winner in opera concert", aol.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
  21. ^ Oprah Winfrey Show, November 6, 2007.
  22. ^ Paul Potts ∗ Home
  23. ^ Interview on BBC Radio 2 - 16 July 2007


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