“Paul, what are you here for today?” he was asked.
“To sing opera,” he said.
The judges, Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan, did not look convinced.
Paul had loved to sing since he was a boy, and he once said his voice was his comfort when he was bullied at school. He had saved for lessons and sung in amateur opera. But then came a serious illness, a bicycle accident that broke his collarbone, and bills that piled up. He had not sung in years.
“Confidence has always been sort of a difficult thing for me,” he admitted.
Then the music started, and he sang “Nessun Dorma,” the great tenor aria from Puccini’s opera Turandot.
The judges’ faces changed almost at once. Amanda Holden was moved to tears. When Paul reached the final soaring notes, the audience of 2,000 people rose to its feet.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” one judge said. Another called it “a complete breath of fresh air.” And one predicted that this “little lump of coal” was “going to turn into a diamond.”
That came true. On June 17, 2007, Paul Potts won the very first series of Britain’s Got Talent. That December, he sang for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Performance. His first album, One Chance, topped the charts in 13 countries.
Clips of that audition have now been watched well over 200 million times on YouTube.
Sometimes the quietest person in the room has the biggest voice of all.
Do you remember the first time you heard Paul Potts sing? Share this with someone who needs a reminder that it’s never too late.