"Let no one sleep"

Roaming around my regular blog reads tonight, I was stopped in my tracks on Jen Stewart's blog, Jenny Sais Quoi. I clicked on her link to this video & was floored:

Paul Potts is the singer here & he won Britain's Got Talent last week. Jen pointed out how skeptical Simon Cowell & the other judges look when Paul first comes out, judging him mostly on his bad teeth & bad suit. Then, they are blown away by his awesome talent.

I know very little about opera, but I was moved to tears by his snippet of "Nessun Dorma." He has a true gift. To my untrained ear, there's not much difference between his performance & this one, by Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti's voice is of course more seasoned, but that will (hopefully) come with time for Paul Potts.

He is described on the show as a mobile phone salesman, which he was until last week. However, he has also performed in local operatic productions with the Bath Opera. Some people have taken offense to the way the show presented him as an shy, quiet amateur, since he does have past operatic experience.

However, that's missing the point. The point is that this man wanted to sing opera professionally & he clearly had the talent, but not the connections nor the confidence, to do so. Now, he does: Simon has already signed him to a recording contract. Bravo, Paul!