You don’t normally treat opera the way you would a pop song. You don’t dance to it, jam with it, or play it in parties.
But Paul Potts doesn’t mind. The former mobile phone salesman who topped other contenders on UK’s hit show Britain’s Got Talent, breathes and lives opera. It gives his life more meaning and purpose.
Thus, even if English happens to be his mother tongue, Potts left his comfort zone to learn Italian, the language of opera. His reason: It gives him a better grasp an opera piece’s lyrics.
This knack for learning new languages would also come in handy as he spoke in Filipino (he pronounced Kapamilya for Myx channel with nary an accent), Mandarin, Korean and other Asian languages to promote One Chance, his debut album under Sony BMG, in music channels all over the region.
But that’s getting ahead of the story. The man who would take Britain by storm after singing Puccini’s Nessun Dorma before 13.5 million televiewers, impress the discriminating Simon Cowell, brought tears to his fellow-judge (on Britain’s Got Talent) Amanda Holden and the live audience’s eyes, is something else.
Potts, the son of a bus driver and a supermarket cashier, was singing almost from the moment he could talk.
“My mother recalls me listening to the theme from ET and conducting an imaginary orchestra with sticks,” says Potts. At 11, he joined one of the best church choirs in Bristol.
At 16, Potts’ love affair with the opera grew from a burning ember to an all-consuming passion. He bought a cheap Carreras recording.
“It was the first time I had heard Che Gelida Manina (Your Tiny Hand is Frozen) and I was moved. To this day, La Boheme remains my favorite opera,” he says.
Potts is so captivated by the emotion of opera he could listen to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony while walking down the street. Scores of eyes looking at him in curiosity didn’t bother him at all.
This doesn’t mean he has closed his eyes and ears to pop music, though. He listens to Snow Patrol, Queen and U2. There’s no telling what kind of inspiration he will get from these pop icons.
All that bullying he got as a boy who lacked self-confidence is also serving him in good stead.
“What you do in your past makes you who you are now,” Potts muses. “You can turn the negative to a positive.”
Like, can he use all that pent-up angst borne from too much bullying (he didn’t exactly say how) to become a much better singer?
“I can,” Potts answers.
Those underdog years have also taught Potts the value of humility. He doesn’t strut around like he’s God’s gift to music. His handshake is firm; his thank you, sincere. He looks at you straight in the eye and talks to you like you’re an old-time friend.
He even manages to joke about driving his wife of four years, Julie-ann, up the wall.
His devotion to his wife is total. He avoids eating garlic simply because his wife hates it. One of the perks of being a winner, he says, is having the luxury of time. Now, he can enjoy just that with Julie-ann, who was with him in Hong Kong, and will join him in New Zealand for the rest of his promo tour.
Before Britain’s Got Talent, the workaholic Potts would be up by 6 a.m. and ride his trusty old bike to go to work 15 miles away. The ride took all of one hour. He’d be home by 8 p.m., after pedaling away for an hour again.
He’d be out working on weekends and hardly had time for his wife, who is now on leave as assistant supervisor in a call center in Wales.
That work ethic, however, has stuck to him like second skin. Describing himself as a work in progress, Potts vows to keep on taking care of his voice.
“I drink lots of water. I prefer not eating anything two to three hours before I perform. Eating lettuce, you also end up losing a lot of air, so I also try to avoid salad,” he relates.
Sleep is something he doesn’t need so much. Six hours is enough for him.
He was even nursing a cold while performing before press people all over Asia at posh Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok, Hong Kong. A recent bout with laryngitis also failed to bring him down.
How can it? When Potts is finally doing what he loves best?
As he says, “Now, I got the privilege of doing what I love. I love singing.”
Needless to say, it loves Potts right back. He himself handpicked the songs in One Chance, choosing those that have a special place in his heart “because of the memories attached to them such as the hymn Jerusalem, the first solo I ever did as a young boy treble.”
He adds, “Others I’ve selected simply because I love them and they touch me in some way and all of which have such beautiful melodies.”
Potts admits one of the more challenging choices in the album is the Spanish version of My Way. His hair-raising rendition of REM’s Everybody Hurts, sung in Italian (Ognuno Soffre) hearkens back to his underdog days when he was still struggling with confidence issues.
The self-effacing Potts admits he always gets attacks of nervousness before he mounts the stage. That’s important, he says, since it gets the adrenaline rush going. That’s when he looks heavenward — as he did in the Langham stage — and all the emotions come rushing in.
And the world, as they say, is his stage.
But after the deafening applause has died down and the lights have dimmed, he is humble Paul Potts again — a devoted husband, a simple guy and hardworking singer.
“My wife and I are not materialistic,” reveals Potts. “The bike I used to ride to work is still in my house. I still use the car I used to ride in.”’Even the whopping £100,000 he won as prize in Britain’s Got Talent did not go to some luxury cruise around the world or some flashy new car. It went straight to the bank and has remained there.
“We’ve already got a house and a car anyway,” shrugs the smiling Julie-ann.
That doesn’t mean though, that the Potts couple doesn’t feel entitled to a little vacation now and then. Potts will treat his wife to an African safari when they finally find the time.
But while the promo tours and media interviews are swirling around him, Potts is bent on keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground. His luxurious Hong Kong suite (complete with a toilet seat equipped with a sensor), legions of fans and an endless stream of accolades may have changed his life. But Potts vows it will never change him as a person.
“I have remained who I am and I will remain who I am. My wife loves me for who I am,” he relates.
Changing oneself to please people who don’t like you, he adds, “is actually selling yourself short.”
This kind of thinking has sustained him through all the times people have bullied him, and this is what will sustain him now that he’s on top of the heap.
“Just because I’ve had confidence issues in the past doesn’t mean I can’t stand up for what my core values are,” he explains.
To the everyman out there who looks up to him, Potts has these words of advice: “Follow what you love doing. Just grab it.”
And once you do, hold on to it with all your might. Potts is doing just that by acting as his worst critic. He’s hard on himself as a singer, knowing that his stiffest competition is no one but himself.
That’s his best motivation, the driving force that keeps him on top of the game.