I don't even like opera, but this is pretty awesome.

Paul Potts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Paul Potts (born 1971 in Bristol, England), from Port Talbot in South Wales, is a singer who became the winner of the first series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent, singing operatic arias and impressing the judges in all of his performances. At the time of his victory on Britain's Got Talent, he had been working in The Carphone Warehouse, but following his win he has been signed by the show's judge Simon Cowell to record an album. Potts has previously worked in unpaid opera productions from 1999 to 2003, however, illness in 2003 brought an end to his amateur opera career.



Potts is said to have first sung Opera in 1999 in a karaoke competition, dressed as Pavarotti, although he had said during the show that his voice had always been a source of solace in the past when bullied, so he would have sung from a younger age. That same year he appeared in the Michael Barrymore talent show My Kind of Music. Although he did not win the competition, he won £8,000, which helped to pay for singing lessons in Italy. During his singing course he was selected as one of the best students, to sing in front of Luciano Pavarotti and Katia Ricciarelli, who were apparently impressed with his singing.

...Potts broke his collarbone in a bicycle accident in 2003, which prevented him from pursuing opera as a career. He says that this, as well as financial difficulties, led to him entering the talent show...



...In the interview that was broadcast before his performance in the semi-final, Paul stated that he had trouble with being bullied in school, and that it may have had an influence on his (lack of) self-confidence.

He has been married since 2003 to Julie-Anne, whom he met in an Internet chat room.

Until June 19, 2007 Potts worked as a manager at the Bridgend Carphone Warehouse, a mobile phone store around 8 miles from his home town."