Paul Potts

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Paul Potts at the Pavillon Theater in Rhyl, UK (2008)
Paul Potts at the Pavillon Theater in Rhyl, UK (2008)
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
One chance
  DE 1 
Quintuple platinum
× 5
Quintuple platinum
08/03/2007 (53 weeks)
  AT 3 
platinum
platinum
08/01/2008 (33 weeks)
  CH 4th 
gold
gold
08/03/2008 (26 weeks)
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 
platinum
platinum
07/28/2007 (16 weeks)
  US 23 10/06/2007 (24 weeks)
Passione
  DE 3 05/22/2009 (8 weeks)
  AT 5 05/22/2009 (6 weeks)
  CH 9 05/24/2009 (7 weeks)
  UK 5 06/13/2009 (4 weeks)
  US 33 05/23/2009 (3 weeks)
Cinema Paradiso
  DE 40 October 29, 2010 (3 weeks)
  AT 33 October 29, 2010 (7 weeks)
  CH 68 10/31/2010 (1 week)
The Greatest Hits
  UK 21st 11/09/2013 (3 weeks)
Singles
Nessun dorma
  DE 2 
gold
gold
07/18/2008 (20 weeks)
  AT 8th 07/25/2008 (23 weeks)
  CH 12 08/03/2008 (19 weeks)
  UK 100 08/04/2007 (1 week)

Paul Robert Potts (born October 13, 1970 in Bristol ) is a British tenor . He became internationally known for his successful participation in the British casting show Britain’s Got Talent in 2007. In Germany he sold 3.5 million records.

Life

Beginnings

Paul Potts grew up in Fishponds, a suburb of Bristol. His father was a bus driver and his mother a cashier. He has two brothers and a sister and attended Mary Redcliffe School in Bristol. Potts studied philosophy at University College Marjon Plymouth . He wrote his Bachelor of Arts thesis on the question of evil and suffering in a world created by God.

During his school days he discovered his interest in singing . While his parents showed no interest in classical music , Potts sang in the choir of Chester Park Junior School and for more than ten years in several church choirs in Bristol, including Christ Church.

Potts' fondness for opera was particularly inspired by an older recording by José Carreras . “I bought a cheap Carreras recording” and “I heard Che Gelida Manina for the first time and it moved me. To this day, La Bohème is my favorite opera, ”said Potts. He trained his singing voice through privately financed lessons.

First successes

In 1999 he took part in the UK talent show My Kind of Music and won £ 8,000 . With the help of this profit he took lessons at opera schools in northern Italy under Vilma Vernocchi and Katia Ricciarelli and was accepted into the master class. For his education he paid £ 12,000 (16,000  € ).

From 1999 to 2003 he appeared on various stages as a tenor without a fee. Particularly noteworthy are his appearances at the amateur opera Bath Opera in 2001 as Don Carlos in the opera of the same name and as Radames in the opera Aida , both by Giuseppe Verdi . His appearances were published on television and radio, but did not lead to his breakthrough.

Interruption of the musical career (2003 to 2007)

Due to a ruptured appendix in 2003, a benign tumor on his adrenal gland and a broken collarbone , Potts was initially unable to continue his career. Before appearing on the British talent show in 2007, Potts worked for two years at the supermarket chain Tesco from 2003 and then as a seller of mobile phones for the retail chain The Carphone Warehouse , in whose Bridgend store he was promoted to executive position in 2006.

breakthrough

Paul Potts (2013)

On June 9, 2007, Paul Potts appeared after a three-year hiatus in Simon Cowell's British talent show Britain's Got Talent on ITV in Cardiff . He presented a version of the aria Nessun dorma from the opera Turandot by Giacomo Puccini, which he arranged himself . During his appearance, Potts was initially viewed with skepticism by the audience and the judges (Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden ). However, his performance was well received. During his further appearances on June 14, 2007 and June 17, 2007, his success continued with the main part of the piece Con te partirò (Time to Say Goodbye) by Francesco Sartori and the uncut version of Nessun dorma .

Potts won the competition and was allowed to appear as a reward on December 3, 2007 in the Royal Variety Performance 2007 in front of the British Queen Elizabeth II . He received £ 100,000 and a £ 1,000,000 record deal from Sony BMG . Paul Potts' first album entitled One Chance was released in 2007.

Excerpts from the program Britain's Got Talent on video portals such as YouTube made Potts known worldwide. His album One Chance made it into the charts in numerous countries, and in many it even reached number 1. From July 2008, his appearance from Britain's Got Talent was used in a Deutsche Telekom commercial . This led to such great demand for his recording of Nessun dorma that it made it to number 3 in the charts in Germany through download sales alone, the highest position of a download-only title in Germany until then. His album, which had only reached number 31 in 2007, also returned to the charts and was ultimately able to conquer the top of the charts . On February 21, 2009 it received an echo in the international rock / pop category.

Potts has been married since 2003.

reception

Potts' life path was traced by the largely positively rated British biopic One Chance - Once in a Lifetime from 2013. His singing qualities, on the other hand, were often very sober judgments:

“His singing is technically rather mediocre. What matters is that he sang at all, that he, the cell phone seller, made it. For this he was celebrated by the audience after his performance. For its extraordinary story. "

- Matthias Lüdecke : Süddeutsche Zeitung , 2011

“I know students who can do it better. Its charisma is also expandable. You can really see the effort in him. The art of singing great is that you just don't see the effort. Potts is, so to speak, the opposite of what I convey to my students. [...] I grant Potts the success from the bottom of my heart. [...] But now, please, nobody should pretend that a new classic star has been born. "

- Thomas Quasthoff : Interview, Spiegel Online , 2008

Awards

  • 2009
    • Echo in the category Artist International Rock / Pop

Discography

Albums

  • 2007 One Chance
  • 2007 One Chance (Christmas Edition) (UK:goldgold)
  • 2008 One Chance (Deluxe Edition)
  • 2009 Passione
  • 2010 Cinema Paradiso
  • 2013 The Greatest Hits
  • 2014 Home
  • 2017 On Stage
  • 2018 Winter Dreams

Singles

Web links

Commons : Paul Potts  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  2. ↑ Awards: DE AT CH UK
  3. ↑ Mystery solved: Paul Potts is a Marjon graduate. In: roadturn.com. 18th February 2017.
  4. ↑ Ralph Geisenhan: I have a dream, "Go ahead and sing!" In: zeit.de . September 10, 2008, accessed January 9, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Jenny Hoch: Paul Potts in Germany: Das verpuffte Sternchen. In: Spiegel Online . October 27, 2008, accessed January 9, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Star portrait of Paul Potts at musik-base
  7. ↑ Paul Potts new leader in the album charts. GfK Entertainment, July 29, 2008 (press release)
  8. ↑ Matthias Lüdecke: Star births on the Internet - Potts flash. In: sueddeutsche.de . May 17, 2010, accessed January 9, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Classical star Thomas Quasthoff: "Paul Potts makes Popsülze". In: Spiegel Online . November 7, 2008, accessed January 9, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Potts, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Potts, Paul Robert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British tenor
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Bristol