Britain's Got Talent is apparently the prototype for American Idol, but I'll bet something like this has never happened on the latter program. This guy is absolutely unbelievable! He peddles cell phones for a living. Who'd have guessed he could do something as magnificent as this Puccini aria? Watch this clip, and if you're easily moved by great music you might want to have a kleenex handy:
He won the Britian's Got Telent competition with a repeat performance of Nessun Dorma.
This guy is a true internet sensation. With very little over-the-air exposure or printed stories about him outside Britain, his videos on YouTube have racked up well over 5 million views. He's now got a recording contract and will be performing for the queen.
Tonight, Keith Olbermann confidently predicted that, if you haven't yet heard of Paul Potts, you will. From Olbermann and from snippets of various articles on the internet, I've gathered that Potts has had some professional training in Italy, and he worked with an amateur opera company but was never paid for it. He was paying for his training, but at some point medical expenses began to overwhelm him and he had to give it up. Potts said that his audition for BGT was a last-ditch effort to achieve success singing. It looks like his effort has paid off quite well.
So even though he's had some training, I think his is still a great Cinderella story. Here's his performance from the BGT finals:
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