Month of February , 2008

Click for complete Paul Potts Article from sptimes.com

Paul Potts made the right call on a coin flip to decide whether to give Britain's version of American Idol a go, a move that transformed the cell phone salesman into an opera star.

When Paul Potts strode onto a TV soundstage last year, you could almost see the sarcasm dripping from talent show king Simon Cowell. The pudgy cell phone salesman, appearing on Cowell's British version of American Idol, announced he was going to sing opera, and the crowd cringed.

But then Potts opened his mouth, and out poured Puccini's aria Nessun Dorma. Instantly, he launched an Internet sensation and a musical career.

Now the Welsh tenor is living the great American and British dream, having been vaulted from obscurity into sudden celebrity after he won Britain's Got Talent over the favorite, a 6-year-old girl who sang Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

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Again and again.. thank God for internet & YouTube.

click for a complete Paul Potts Article from sun-sentinel.com

The import version of Welsh tenor Paul Potts' debut CD contains an unlikely candidate for operatic treatment: Everybody Hurts, a loping ballad by the Georgia rock band R.E.M. Potts not only covers the 1993 hit, he sings it in Italian. That explains the song's parenthetical subtitle, Ognuno Soffre. It doesn't explain what a former cell phone salesman turned opera sensation is doing interpreting R.E.M.

"I appreciate good music wherever I hear it," Potts, 37, said in a telephone conversation about his first U.S. tour, which begins on Saturday at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood.

Though not officially released here, Ognuno Soffre has at least one American admirer in R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills. "I think it's beautiful," Mills said in an interview (to discuss the band's upcoming appearance at the Langerado festival in Big Cypress National Preserve). "My father was a tenor ... So I really appreciate it, and I appreciate the fact that our songs can translate to other styles."

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Click for complete Paul Potts Article from theday.com 

An unassuming Paul Potts, who often looks as if he's on the verge of tears, nearly missed his tryout last April for “Britain's Got Talent,'' a televised talent competition like “American Idol.”

The amateur opera singer was working as a salesman at a cell phone store, and he felt bad having a co-worker fill in for him on his weekend shift. The night before the audition, he flipped a coin.

“I couldn't decide whether to enter or not,'' says Potts during a telephone interview last week from a hotel room in the United Kingdom. “I didn't know whether I had the talent. I wasn't sure if I'd be considered too old. It was a big risk and I don't usually take risks. In the end, I left it up to the 10 pence.”

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Click here for a complete Paul Potts Article from browardpalmbeach.com 

For starters, you gotta love anyone who can bring that sharp-tongued Simon Cowell close to tears. That's exactly what transpired when Paul Potts auditioned for Britain's Got Talent, the U.K. version of American Idol. His show-stopping performance mesmerized YouTube gazers worldwide and made the onetime supermarket stocker and mobile-phone salesman an instant sensation.

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Click for a complete Paul Potts Article from Courant.com

Paul Potts was about to abandon his dream when he won a bet with himself.

"I was going to give up singing permanently," Potts says. "I didn't have the money to do it anymore, and I couldn't decide whether or not I had the talent."

The British tenor couldn't decide whether to try out for "Britain's Got Talent," the latest attempt by Simon Cowell to uncover a star.

So he flipped a coin, and when it came up heads he decided to perform. Almost a year later, the YouTube clip of Potts' audition has been viewed more than 20 million times.

He has sung before Queen Elizabeth II and Oprah Winfrey. His debut album "One Chance" went to No. 1 in the United Kingdom, and he is in the middle of a world tour that will cover 65 cities in 13 countries.

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Below is a complete article from newswales.co.uk

Former Port Talbot phone salesman Paul Potts, winner of TV talent show Britain's Got Talent, hits the American road on March 1 with Joy Kabanuck, Kelly Levesque and Sara Gettelfinger, known as the Three Graces.

The tour starts in Hollywood, Florida, and runs to the end of the month.

Stops include Washington D.C., Atlantic City, New York City, Ottawa, Victoria in British Columbia, Los Angeles and Mexico City.

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Click for a complete Paul Potts article - Popup Alert

Joy Kabanuck, Kelly Levesque and Sara Gettelfinger, a.k.a. Three Graces, are gearing up to hit the road with "Britain's Got Talent" winner Paul Potts.

The tour kicks off March 1 at Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Fla., and runs through the end of the month.

Stops include Lisner Auditorium in Washington, D.C. (March 3), Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa in Atlantic City (March 8), Town Hall in New York City (March 11), Place des Arts in Montreal (March 14), Centrepointe Theatre in Ottawa, Ontario (March 17), McPherson Playouse in Victoria, British Columbia (March 24), The Wiltern in Los Angeles (March 26) and Teatro Metropolitan in Mexico City.

Tickets for some shows are available at Ticketmaster.com.

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Thank God for YouTube.

Click here for a complete Paul Potts Article from eveningstar.co.uk

A BUMPER crowd turned out at Ipswich's Regent Theatre as television star Paul Potts took to the stage to belt out some classic songs.

Potts, who rose to fame after winning television talent contest Britain's Got Talent, entertained the audience at Ipswich's Regent with his trademark vocals.

He is currently in the middle of his 2008 tour which includes dates in the US, Canada and Europe, and fans in Suffolk packed out the Regent, keen to hear him live.

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According to YouTube page, the video was added August 28, 2008. Thank you, scmp888.

Short video - Thank God for Internet.

Below is the entire article by newswale.co.uk (short article) 

Former Port Talbot phone salesman Paul Potts has had more than 21 million views on YouTube, it was announced today.

The US website TwinCities.com today recommends Paul's album One Chance as a good one for St Valentine's Day.

But it cruelly adds:

"There's an awful lot of crying involved in the story of one Paul Potts, a stocky British mobile phone salesman with awful teeth and crushing self-doubt who also happens to be a crowd-pleasing operatic tenor.

"His initial audition on Simon Cowell's Britain's Got Talent quickly ascended to the ranks of YouTube fame.

"To certain audiences - including, most likely, your mom - this is the musical equivalent of heroin."

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click here for a complete Paul Potts Article from birminghammail.net 

PAUL Potts is living the dream and while audiences live it with him good luck to the lad.

The Britain’s Got Talent winner comes over as an ordinary sort of bloke who struggles a bit with patter between songs but has an inherent, honest, humility which carries him through.

It is a bit of a shock when he first appears as he is surprisingly small and insignificant until he starts to sing when he lights up the stage.

The snobby end of the opera crowd look down their noses at him and yes, anyone with modest musical knowledge can spot flaws in his singing and technique but Potts has never tried to con anyone that he is the finished article or an opera star.

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Click here for a complete Paul Potts Article from The Argus 

Embarking on a nationwide tour backed by a 14-piece orchestra and support artist is pretty good going for a mobile phone salesman from Port Talbot.

But, unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past year, you will have been aware of the media frenzy surrounding Paul Potts, the deserving winner of ITV's Britain's Got Talent.

Click here for a complete Paul Potts article from thestar.co.uk

FIRST heard about Britain's Got Talent when I went to London last Easter to see Razorlight at Earl's Court.