Regular readers know I have babbled about Paul Potts, the winner of Britain’s Got Talent.

Over 10 million people have watched his performances on YouTube (compared to the 2 million viewers of the show on ITV)

He has an entry up on wiki,  the big news is that his CD is being released in the UK July 16th and in North America July 23, 2007.
Sony has played it safe, with a track list that includes your basic standards that you’d hear from Andre Bocelli or Josh Groban.

The original audition for Britain’s Got Talent was taped in March, the show aired in June, Sony is scrambling to get this out.

Some of the tracks are Jerusalem, Music of the Night, Nella Fantasia, Por Ti Sere (You Raise Me Up), Maria and Cavatina.

What was interesting about Paul’s ITV audition was the audience. Teens leaped to their feet, women cried, jaws dropped.  YouTube hip hop fans wondered why opera was just used in cartoons, ’cause wow, this guys voice was cool. He sang Nessun dorma on the final, again, and the response was the same. We forget the timelessness of good music, and that opera was the pop music of it’s day.
Potts has been introduced to US audiences on NPR, and NBC’s Today show.

With audition shows like Britain’s Got Talent, producers go through hundreds of hours of tape to put the first show together. If you don’t know why people are potty over Potts, here is his first performance, and here  is the final performance. The hair on the back of my neck stood up when I first saw him, and even though the production values were far over the top glitzy for the final show, his voice, his utter love of his music floods that auditorium, and the spotlights, dry ice and pyrotechnics cannot outshine him.

I started classical music training when I was six. It was mostly hard work, hours of lessons, too much practising, and an endless parade of competitions, performances and exams but it has been a wonderful and joyful escape in my life. I was a needy, rebellious abused kid, but when I stepped up on stage, into a church loft, or in front of examiners I felt whole and complete in the moment and the music, I felt home. I will always be grateful for the sacrifices my adoptive parents made, regardless of their motives for the training and pushing, they gave me opportunities;  that bliss, concentration and joy was the real gift that will go with me to my grave.  
I’m not a big opera fan, I remember sitting in a music history class wondering how I was going to get all my work done when we were assigned Tristan and Isolde. As the class sat listening, I was utterly unaware of the tears coming down my face.

I was dashing through a mall when a voice caught my ear and I skidded to a stop. I wandered in and stood under a speaker like a mute. A clerk looked at me oddly, walked up and said, “May I help you?” I was embarrassed, suddenly aware of where I was, and pointed at the speaker and asked, “Who is that?”

She burst out laughing. “Oh, wonderful isn’t he? That’s Andre Bocelli.”
I got his first CD that day. 
I’ll never forget the episode of Allie McBeal Josh Groban debuted in.
Sarah Brightman. Tiri Ke Kanawa. Charlotte Church. Mario Lanza. We all have our favorites and they are a few of mine.
Colm Wilkinson. Top of my list. I still forget to breath when I listen to him.
PBS, NPR, CBC, BBC have brought us great talents most of us would never have been introduced to. Now YouTube brings them to us, shared by fans, just like you and I. And end of this month, I’ll have a CD to buy.:^)

The Official Paul Potts website

Have you had a Paul Potts moment, when someones talent just stopped you in your tracks?