There’s a huge buzz on the internet about this guy name Paul Potts from Whales who’s in “Britian’s Got Talent” show with, yes Simon as one of the judges. Paul is a cell phone salesman who has just an amazing talent for singing opera. I got goosebumps listening to him sing. Check out how Simon reacts like “holy cow,” 2 old ladies in the audience start crying, and the female judge has goosebumps and is also in tears. As a singer (an have sang opera in the past myself), this guy is definitely pro quality. His intonation and tone is spot on, with great control (he only lost it momentarily very briefly on the high note, but that’s ok as you could tell he was nervous). But this guy will go VERY far from this point on. The world see’s his talent, and Paul, I wish you the best of luck!

See the video of him singing “Nessun Dorma” in higher quality video/audio here:
VIDEO

EDIT: Someone has emailed me a link (the subject of which said “Paul Potts is a liar”) which is pretty sobering in that Paul Potts has sang opera professionally for the Bath Opera, in the UK. His biography is even listed with a picture in the past performance of Aida (LINK). He never really mentioned it, just said he’s a cell phone salesman now… Although I think that Simon and the other producers spun it this way to generate more buzz (which it did). But still, if he doesn’t do this professionally and on the side, the more power to him. If he does this professionally and lied about being a cell phone salesman. Shame on you…

His Biography was listed as follows from that LINK above:

Paul Potts Radames

A student of Ian Comboy, Paul has appeared on national and local television and radio. He has spent two summers touring Northern Italy training with one of the major opera schools, and has taken part in masterclasses with Vilma Vernocchi, Katia Ricciarelli and Luciano Pavarotti. He has also performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. With Bath Opera he has sung the roles of Don Basilio (Marriage of Figaro), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and the title role in Verdi’s Don Carlos. Future plans include the role of Chevalier des Grieux (Manon Lescaut) for Southgate Opera, London, and another concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the summer. Oh yes! He also plans to get married in May this year!!!

Double EDIT: got another email with THIS ARTICLE from UK’s Guardian newspaper that tells the story straight. Basically, he performed as an amateur on the side, then had to stop to to surgery, but always wanted to sing. Still bending the truth a bit, but the more power to him. Good luck Paul, and I hope you win this one! (read more to read the cache)

The Guardian article is cached below:

This is my lifelong dream, says the singing salesman

Paul Potts wowed the judges of a hit ITV talent contest last week with Nessun Dorma and became an internet sensation

Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
Sunday June 17, 2007
The Observer

He has been billed as the classic hidden talent, the overnight star unearthed by chance and catapulted into the limelight. The truth about Paul Potts, the modest mobile phone salesman with the romantic soul and the voice of a Neapolitan opera singer, is, though, a little different.
While the three judges of the hit ITV show Britain’s Got Talent, on which Potts appeared last week, may have been astonished to discover the quality of his voice, he has in fact been struggling for 10 years on the fringes of the operatic world, looking for an opportunity to show the world what he can do.

With the prize of a lifetime within his reach in this evening’s live grand final, Potts is facing down allegations that he is an experienced performer who is reaping the benefit of professional training.
The 36-year-old tenor, who hid his talent from his colleagues at Carphone Warehouse and had all but given up on singing for a living, has won a huge following since his pitch-perfect performances on Britain’s Got Talent, the show designed to find a new star to appear at the Royal Variety Performance. Tonight Potts is to sing again for the highest stakes in his life - the chance to secure the kind of career he has always dreamed about.

Speaking to The Observer, the singer denied the allegations. ‘I have never worked as a professional singer. I have poured everything I could earn into a few lessons, but everyone taking part in this television show has had some training,’ he said yesterday.

‘My four performances with Bath Opera a few years back were all amateur. I am angry about this because I have never earned anything, although I did get petrol expenses a couple of times.’ His story is confirmed this weekend by the singing teacher who gave him lessons until Potts was forced to give up in 2003 because of illness. Potts adds that he has always been open about a trip to Italy to improve his voice. He had saved up to sing for Luciano Pavarotti in a masterclass, but had no tuition from the great tenor.

The singer, from Port Talbot, South Wales, will be competing for the public vote tonight against five other amateur artists, including a breakdancing troupe, a ventriloquist and an 11-year-old’s song-and-dance act. Potts will sing live for judges Piers Morgan, the former newspaper editor, actress Amanda Holden, and Simon Cowell, the multi-millionaire creator of the show. Potts has been a favourite for all three of them since the first pure note of his audition piece, Puccini’s Nessun Dorma. ‘The look on Simon Cowell’s face the first time I sang was priceless. You could see his eyes roll when I said I was going to sing some opera,’ said Potts.

‘It has been a helluva ride, but I think it is going to be wide open to be honest. The other finalists are very strong,’ he said. ‘I never thought I would get this far.’

His former singing teacher, Ian Comboy, told The Observer he regards Potts’s voice as ‘amazingly authentic’.

‘The top of his voice is almost totally natural. It does not strain,’ explained Comboy, who gave Potts lessons until 2003. ‘With most British voices in the Italian mode you can hear that it is still a British voice, but Paul’s voice is Italianate.’

Comboy, 66, who has himself sung at Covent Garden, added: ‘Paul used to cycle to lessons in Bath in all weathers, all the way from Bristol [his hometown], and arrive panting and sweating, but he would still sing like an angel. He lived for his singing. He would talk about nothing but the latest aria he was learning.’

The semi-final in which Potts triumphed once again on Thursday night was watched by 9.5 million people. ‘Apparently, that is 41 per cent of the viewing audience,’ said the singer.

National support has been boosted by the popularity of the video clip of his audition which, by the end of the week, had been watched on the internet site YouTube by more than a million people.

His fellow staff at Carphone Warehouse have also rallied to the cause. This weekend many of the stores are sporting posters of Potts.

He stopped singing completely four years ago following a series of misfortunes. An operation to remove a benign tumour followed an emergency appendectomy and then, once he had regained good health, his collarbone was broken when he was knocked from his bicycle. Bullied at school in Bristol, Paul first responded to classical music when he heard Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique symphony (No 6). ‘I remember I loved the theme of the first movement. Then I got into Puccini and the emotion of Italian music,’ he said.

In contrast, his wife, Julie-Ann, 26, likes house music, but Potts has introduced her to the classical repertoire. ‘She came down out of the audience to see me on Thursday and she was shaking with it all,’ he said.

When the couple married four years ago the groom sang Greig’s Ich Leibe Dich at the ceremony.

If Potts wins tonight he receives £100,000 as well his place on the Royal Variety bill. ‘We could do with the money,’ he said, ‘but it is really about doing what I believe I was meant to do.’