Paul Potts

Paul Robert Potts (born 13 October 1970) is a British tenor. In 2007, he won the first series of ITV's Britain's Got Talent with his performance of "Nessun dorma", an aria from Puccini's opera Turandot. As a singer of operatic pop music, Potts recorded the album One Chance, which topped sales charts in 13 countries. Before winning Britain's Got Talent, Potts 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.

Early life

Paul Potts was born on 13 October 1970 in Kingswood, Bristol, and raised in nearby Fishponds by his English father Roland, a bus driver, and Welsh mother, Yvonne (née Higgins), a supermarket cashier. He has two brothers and one sister.

Potts attended St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School, where he developed his love of singing. He also sang with the choir at Chester Park Junior School and with the choirs at several Bristol churches, including Christ Church. Potts said in interviews that he had been bullied in school, and that experience may have made him lack self-confidence. He has also said that his voice had always been a source of solace when he was bullied.

After he left school in 1987, Potts had various jobs including working at Waitrose and Tesco; he also worked part-time at Debenhams. At the time of his Britain's Got Talent appearance, he was working in The Carphone Warehouse.

In 1993, Potts earned a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) Honours degree in humanities from University College Plymouth St Mark & St John. In 1996, Potts was elected in a council by-election to represent the Eastville ward of Bristol City Council as a Liberal Democrat councillor; he was the youngest member of Bristol City Council and served until 2003.