The singing coach at their school had paired them up. Charlotte did most of the talking. Jonathan barely spoke.
He told the judges he had been teased about his size since primary school, and that it had badly hurt his confidence. Charlotte said she had always stood up for him. Jonathan said he didn’t think he would be on that stage at all without her.
As they got ready to sing, Simon Cowell was heard whispering, “Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse.”
Then they sang “The Prayer,” the song made famous by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion.
Jonathan’s voice filled the theater. It was a big, rich, operatic tenor that sounded far older than 17. By the end, the audience was on its feet, and so were the judges.
“Charlotte, I think you’re good,” Cowell said. “But Jonathan, you’re unbelievable.”
Then he asked whether Charlotte might hold him back. Jonathan didn’t hesitate. “We’ve come on here as a duo, and we’re going to stay on here as a duo.”
Cowell admitted his head was telling him Jonathan should “dump her.” But his heart, he said, told him there was something magical about them together. They went through to the next round.
The two friends stayed together all the way to the final, where they finished second. Cowell signed them to his record label anyway, and their first album, “Together,” came out that September.
A few months later, Cowell called them into his office to apologize. “I love you as a duo now,” Charlotte remembered him saying.
Would you have stood by your friend the way Jonathan did? Share this with a friend who always has your back.
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