A life-changing ‘one chance’

HONG KONG — After besting several contenders in the UK hit show Britain’s Got Talent, Paul Potts’ life has become, in his own words, just like Christmas. He has become an overnight sensation in England, the US, Australia and Asia. His debut album, One Chance, under Sony BMG, topped the UK album chart for three straight weeks. It has reached a whopping 300,000 units sold, making it a platinum-selling album in the UK.

It has become the No. 1 album in HMV Hong Kong’s Classical Chart for three straight weeks.

He has impressed the usually harsh Simon Cowell, who even told Potts right after he won that a debut album is forthcoming. And it has.

He will perform before The Queen in early December.

Yet Potts has remained the shy guy with the everyman appeal, even on stage where he rendered a couple of opera songs for the Asian press.

He pauses in-between sentences, flashes an occasional smile, and even manages to crack some jokes.

Perhaps it’s because Potts doesn’t look at his present status as an adventure ride to fame and fortune but as a way of expressing himself, and doing what he loves best: Singing opera.

That’s what he told Britain’s Got Talent judge Amanda Holden, who shed tears after hearing him sing, and who admitted she felt goose bumps all over.

“I feel privileged to do what I love doing,” the former mobile phone salesman said.

Potts took his one chance at success and he won. That’s why his album is called yes, One Chance.

“One Chance refers to (the show) Britain’s Got Talent,” Potts explains. “If I didn’t press the ‘submit’  button (referring to how he found out about the show’s search for talents through the Internet) I won’t get my chance.”

Since then, life has never been the same for the guy who strolled awkwardly — almost apologetically —  onto the Cardiff stage for his first Britain’s Got Talent audition a week before the finals.

He got a total of two million votes on Britain’s Got Talent, and his song scored more than 20 million on YouTube.

Kelvin Wadsworth, president of Sony BMG Asia, presented Potts a Chinese traditional outfit as souvenir at the presscon.

Will it be the daunting La Scala next time for the guy whose Nessun Dorma was so stirring it got a standing ovation from the audience, brought a smile on the exacting Cowell’s face and brought tears to people’s eyes on the Britain’s Got Talent finals?

Self-effacing Potts refuses to give a definite answer.

“I’ll take it one day at a time,” he answers.

For now, the guy who loves Tchaikovsky, listens to Snow Patrol, Freddie Mercury, U2 and Queen, is living his dream. And all he because he took that one big chance and followed his heart.