According to Celebrity Net Worth, he has an estimated net worth of £8.2 million but life wasn’t always like that for Britain’s Got Talent winner Paul Potts. The 51-year-old tenor is known for being the first ever winner of the hit ITV show, performing a beautiful rendition of Puccini’s Nessun Dorma for judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden in 2007. But where did this journey all begin?
Meet Paul Potts, the son of bus driver Roland and supermarket cashier Yvonne from Kingswood in Bristol. Ever since Paul was a boy, he loved to sing and has claimed that it was a solace for him when he was bullied at school for the way he looked. Paul had been involved in a bike crash that had left him with a broken front tooth and as his family were poor, he was unable to sort it. In 2004, Paul moved to Port Talbot and took a job as a Carphone Warehouse salesman in Bridgend.
Prior to appearing on BGT, Paul had the chance to sing in Italy and also took music classes there. He even got the chance to sing with his hero, Luciano Pavarotti. Notably clumsy, the now world-famous singer has revealed that he performed Verdi’s Aida against doctor’s wishes to remove an adrenal tumour they’d discovered from a burst appendix. The scene is emotionally documented in the film One Chance where departing Late Late show host James Corden played Potts.
Following surgery for the tumour, Paul broke his collarbone and it was this mishap that led him to enter Britain’s Got Talent. The clip of Paul’s BGT audition racked up 165 million views on YouTube.
After winning BGT, Paul won himself a Royal audience as Queen Elizabeth herself watched on as he sang Nessun Dorma. He would later be invited back to the Royal Albert Hall in 2012 to celebrate 100 years of the Royal Variety Performance.
Being the first winner of Britain’s Got Talent couldn’t have been easy for Paul. BGT itself was even criticised at one point for allowing a ‘professional’ singer to win the competition. Despite this - Paul claimed that he had no ‘professional’ training as such and paid for all his singing lessons.
Later that year, Paul returned to sing in Wales but this time opposite another Welsh singing legend, Katherine Jenkins. He would also go on to release his debut album, One Chance, after signing a record deal with Simon Cowell’s Syco music. The album claimed number 1 in the UK Singles Chart.
In January the following year, Paul began a series of 97 concerts in 85 cities across 23 countries. The tour was lauded by critics and Paul would be asked to return to BGT the next year to give a performance. What followed was years of success with the star featuring on various television channels across the globe including The Oprah Winfrey Show in America. The tenor had gone from being a phone salesman to a worldwide star! As mentioned, Paul’s rise to stardom was turned into a film but there was one notable detail that he didn’t want the producers to include.
In 2013 in his biography, Paul revealed that he had been the victim of sexual abuse. The opera singer was 15 when he was attacked by a Sea Cadets leader. Victor Burton-Barri was sentenced after pleading guilty to 39 charges including indecent assault and taking obscene pictures of children.
Writing in his book, he said: “Basically, he touched me and kissed me. I didn’t want any of it, I never wanted any of it, but I didn’t feel I was someone who was important, I was nothing.” When he told his family that he was writing a book, the star described how he was told that he “shouldn’t wash my dirty linen in public.” Since then, Paul has still been making music. He is an active user of social media and recently posted a beautiful rendition of Danny Boy.
Paul has released a further four albums and is currently signed by Modest Management after leaving Syco behind in 2009. The singer will embark on a tour of Germany later this year, somewhere he recently competed on The Masked Singer.
Remaining true to his down-to-earth nature Paul has opted not to leave his hometown of Port Talbot. The former Carphone Warehouse employee has bought himself a modern mansion nearby his small terraced house with his wife Julie, whom he met on the internet. If the last few years have proved anything, it’s that Paul Potts is far from ‘nothing’. The singer’s story is the classic tale of Rags to Riches and proves that you can do anything if you set your mind to it.
