COVERSTORY: Potts’ no flash in the pan

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IT’S hard not to feel awed and inspired when you’re in the company of Paul Potts, the winner for the first season of popular reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent in 2007.

His journey to stardom reads like a fairy tale, one that is laced with drama, tragedy, personal triumph and a little bit of 21st century magic courtesy of TV and the Internet.

One would remember him performing Puccini’s emotional aria Nessun Dorma (from the opera Turandot) during the show’s audition that eventually went on to become a sensation on YouTube with millions of hits to date.

Just like the show’s recent finalist Susan Boyle, Potts’ talent came as a huge surprise.

Here’s an awkward Bristol cell phone salesman in a US$70 dollar suit looking like a deer caught in headlights on stage.

Naturally, the show’s judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden were sceptical at first.