Got Talent: Singing Voices That Defied The Odds

Paul Potts

Arriving at his audition for Britain’s Got Talent in 2007, Paul Potts (born 1970) confessed that he never had a great deal of self-confidence.  Adding to this personal crisis was the fact that he never sang a note since his accident in 2003—he was knocked off his bike by a car on his way home—leaving him unable to work for months, resulting in mounting debts.  His appearance did not help either: he was a bit short and overweight; and came in wearing an old cheap wrinkly suit and a very sad, weepy demeanor. 

The three judges (Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, and Piers Morgan) and the crowd were not initially impressed with this mobile phone salesman, who expressed his desire to sing opera.  However, Potts proceeded to wow the judges with his version of the aria Nessun dorma from Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot. His performance earned a standing ovation from the 2,000-strong audience and would become YouTube’s one of the most viewed videos.  He went on to win the competition and gained worldwide acclaim with his debut album One Chance, which shot straight to number one in the UK’s official album chart.

Susan Boyle

Dreams really do come true, especially for Susan Boyle.  This 47-year-old unemployed spinster with a frizzy hairdo and tomboyish gait from a small Scottish village of Blackburn surprised the world with her stirring rendition of I Dreamed the Dream from the musical Les Misérables on Britain’s Got Talent (2009). 

Boyle was well aware that the audience was hostile to her initially due to her appearance, and even more so, after she expressed her desire to become a musical theatre singer “as successful as” Elaine Paige.  The judges were not impressed as well, but Boyle was undeterred.  But she humiliated these cynics with a performance that also grabbed the attention of more than 100 million viewers on YouTube within two weeks time.  Despite unrelenting media interest, she finished runner-up in the finals of the show behind dance troupe Diversity. In only six weeks from release, her debut album I Dreamed the Dream became the biggest selling album of the world for the year 2009.

Jovit Baldivino

Pilipinas Got Talent, which is based on the Got Talent franshise, has just launched its very first season halfway around the world in the Philippines, following the British reality TV format created and owned by Simon Cowell’s SYCO company. During an audition session, when the judges, comprising of Ai-Ai De Las Alas, Kris Aquino and Freddie “FMG” Garcia, were starting to feel restless by the inferior quality of talents, they were stunned to life and moved to tears by a small sixteen-year-old boy named Jovit Baldivino, who hails from the city of Batangas (located just 110 kilometers south of Metropolitan Manila) and helps his family by selling siomai (a Chinese dimsum) after school.

Baldivino sang his version of the song “Faithfully” popularized by the American band Journey so beautifully that everyone was awestruck with his big voice despite his small frame. The more impressive thing about this wonder boy is his humility and his determination to help lift his family out of poverty.  He may not yet be as famous as Potts and Boyle, but he certainly will be.  In fact, YouTube clips of his audition have reached almost 3 million hits in a mere three weeks time.  Many millions of fans will definitely be rooting for him until the finals and afterwards, when he will achieve his dream of becoming a major singing star.