ITV Britain's Got Talent's first winner Paul Potts' life after show
The contestant left judges speechless during his first audition and has continued to wow audiences since
The latest series of Britain's Got Talent is well underway and as the judges watch various acts take to the stage, they aim to find the nation's greatest talents. Contestants of all ages can audition and the talent on display is limitless, the show has produced famous musicians, dancers, singers and comedians.
The talent show first aired in 2007 and followed the success of America's Got Talent. Simon Cowell, a long-standing judge and creator of the show was on the judging panel when the show launched. The first panel consisted of Simon, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden. Amanda has been a judge since the show first began, alongside Simon.
The first series was won by Bristol-born opera singer Paul Potts. the contestant left judges speechless during his first audition. The mobile phone salesman blew them all away with his rendition of Nessun dorma. During its broadcast, the series averaged around 8.4 million viewers.
Amanda was emotional as everyone gave Paul a standing ovation. At the time, Simon said: "So you work at Carphone Warehouse and you did that, I was not expecting that. This was a complete breath of fresh air, I thought you were absolutely fantastic." The YouTube video clip from the audition has had more than 197 million views.
Before winning Britain's Got Talent, Paul was a manager at Carphone Warehouse. He had been a Bristol city councillor from 1996 until 2003, and performed in amateur opera from 1999 to 2003. After winning the show, Potts took a six-month sabbatical from his job and resigned in March 2008.
After Britain's Got Talent
In the BGT final Paul beat six-year-old singer Connie Talbot, who finished as the runner-up. Since then, Paul has had an incredible career. Not long after being crowned winner of GBT, in the United States, he was profiled on a National Public Radio programme called Day to Day and appeared live on NBC's programme Today.
2007 continued to be a big year for the singer and that July his debut album One Chance was released in the UK, and claimed the No. 1 spot in the UK Album Chart the following week.
In December 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown presented Paul with a platinum disc for having sold 2,000,000 copies of his album. Over the years he has appeared on TV shows and radio across the world, including in Germany, Japan and Netherlands. Paul has also toured the globe with his music.
In 2013 a movie about the life of Paul Potts was released. The biopic saw James Corden play the lead role as the opera singer. Directed by David Frankel and written by Justin Zackham. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
The 54-year-old is no stranger to TV and in 2019, the singer participated in America's Got Talent: The Champions. The reality show saw well-known acts from across the world compete against one another.
The singer didn’t win the champion title, he finished the show in 12th place out of 50 acts who entered the competition. Another talent show he competed in was Germany’s version of The Masked Singer, where he was seen hiding behind the costume of Koala in 2022.
At the time, Paul wrote on social media: "“I had a huge amount of fun as Koala on @masked.singer.germany some commented that I looked like I was going to be sick. I almost was before and during performance. I had a sick bucket backstage.
“Sure the song didn’t really suit my voice, but that’s the whole point of the show, to challenge yourself outside of your genre. I’m proud that I managed to still have fun and be a playful koala. The mask helps to get rid of some shyness.”
In January 2024, Paul performed the role of Faust in Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera for 16 performances at The Orb Theatre in Tokyo, Japan. He performed Nessun dorma at the end of two of these performances.