This YouTube Clip Will Make You Cry
November 27, 2007, 6:16 pm
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
“Britain’s Got Talent” is the equivalent of our “American Idol”–complete with Simon Cowell–he does double duty. Here’s the qualifying round for one Paul Potts, a cellphone salesman from Cardiff.
Bob Imbelli, you’ll like this one. Really. I promise.
HT: Margaret Silf in AMERICA.
Followed by Aerosmith?! This guy has serious chops. We’re sure he’s not a ringer?
Ah, Grant, ever the journalist.
He sings wonderfully. But part of his success is the song, which almost cannot fail, and an awful lot of it is Napolean Dynamite.
(I know, ever the killjoy.)
Such cynics!
Here is a wikipedia article about him, which I think addresses some of the concerns of Grant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Potts
As for Kathy, well I’m sure the song cannot fail the voice–but surely there are many voices that can fail the song!
I guess the thing is . .. Napoleon Dynamite is fiction. This happened in real life. I don’t think the judges and the audience were faking.
It’s always nice when fairy tales come true.
Even the best songs can fail. See Hugh Grant in “About a Boy.” Or listen to my shower version of “Nessun Dorma.”
I’m just amazed he won. That’s the UK version, I guess. In the US, people would have loved the voice–once. But if he couldn’t pound out a Celine Dion ballad, what good is he?
Give us more credit than that, David. Cathy, thanks so much for this. This did not just make my night. It made my week..hopefully longer. That great moment as Margaret Silf writes when
“Sometimes God’s dream takes eons to emerge out of eternity, and sometimes it happens overnight. A story like Paul’s reverberates down through the centuries from a little town in the Middle East, where an apparently unremarkable child, also destined to endure abuse and misunderstanding, was born to an apparently ordinary girl. That extraordinary child is a constant reminder that God’s dream is longing to come to birth in every one of us. God’s dream is always about what we are born to do and who we are born to be, and the power and the Spirit that continue to flow from that child are the way dream becomes reality, coal turns into diamonds and frogs become princes—not a fairy story, but a real and grounded invitation to each of us to become who we are, a unique human being fully alive, a shaft of the glory of God that will shine in the darkness and which the darkness cannot overcome.”
Cathy,
Your promises get an A++ rating in my book.
But I did miss the handkerchief.
“Nessun Dorma” doesn’t require a huge vocal range; I can hit all the notes and I’m only a middling talent by Welsh standards. I’ve even got an old Al Martino tape with that on it, and Al does it quite well, too.
But it was a great day for us Taffs, to see one of us with our bad teeth, barrel chests, and cheap jackets make an arrogant lump of botox like Simon Callow sit up and take notice. A true Napoleon Dynamite moment, and what’s wrong with that?
For those who want to hear a polished Welsh singer of great power, I recommend Bryn Terfel’s “We’ll Keep a Welcome” CD.
Try singing “Tydi a roddaist” in the shower, David Gibson! (Or just try SAYING “Tydi a roddaist” for that matter.) That last “Amen” will get you on your tippy-toes.
And I wonder if Amanda knew what that “coal that might be a diamond” would mean to someone from Cardiff?
Also notice that when they asked him if he was over the moon at the end, he said, “I am”?
There is no word is Welsh for “yes,” so you’ll hear Welsh people, if they want to give you a straight answer say that instead of “yes.”
More often, they don’t want to give you a straight answer, so they’ll answer a question with a question, like, “Well, what do you think?” Or “Wouldn’t you be?”
OK, Fr. Imbelli, you can hand me your hankie if you’re not using it.
If I can again. There were so many marvelous qualities about this event. First is the low and even awful expectations when the guy started. The slow transformation of the panel and the audience was startling. Women seemed as if the song was only for them and the men pretending to be singing it. Talk about crescendo.
Obviously, art is still in the eyes of the beholder. But for me this was a fantastic moment.
It’s a lovely moment. I cried the first twelve or so times I replayed it.
But soaring strings–aren’t they rather manipulative emotionally?
Case in point: the soundtrack to Rudy. Perhaps not chosen at random. I cry every time I get to that part of the DVD, which I own, where Rudy is lifted up on the shoulders of his teammates.
But it’s worth noting that that “moment” is preceded by a full minute and a half of soaring strings and cymbals workin’ you up, kind of a cross between alternating the star wars theme and the music proper to the Shire in LOTR.
That’s not all that’s going on there, of course. But it’s emotionally influential.
Jean,
not my hankie — Luciano’s.
Range is really just one aspect of singing. Projecting one’s voice without losing tonal quality — that’s more difficult — and doing THAT while still managing to be expressive — that’s what most pop singers can’t do. Ergo they have “big” voices without a lot of emotional nuance or coloration. So clearly, this gentleman has potential.
For those of you who are really into this sort of thing, a couple of years ago there was an American Idol type contest in Britain that was specific to opera singers, and it aired at least once on PBS. These singers were variously, a construction worker and a cashier and just about everything else. There were two winners (which was the plan), one of whom was blind, and they split the role of Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto.
The whole thing was so inspiring and informative (what opera singers go through to achieve their chops) I’ve thought about looking for a video of it to give to my mother.
Barbara,
Oops. Hit the wrong button! The show was called Operatunity and was produced by Channel 4. There is a DVD available from amazon.co.uk but I note that it is a region 2 DVD and so you’d need to check if it would play on all American players.
I saw something like that program on PBS. As I recall, the best female singer was considered too fat.
I have to wonder what the world is coming to when you can be too fat to sing opera …