Britain's Got Talent winner Paul Potts has spent most of his life feeling 'insignificant'. Bullied at school for being 'different', he realised growing up that he had one true friend and that was his voice. Singing was his escape. He was able to lose himself in his own little world - the vicious words of his tormentors replaced by hauntingly beautiful lyrics and melodies that lifted his heart and spirit. It was a love, a passion, a lifeline that would follow Paul into adulthood and help him through many more periods of adversity. But it was also a gift that was destined to go largely undiscovered, due to a crushing lack of self-confidence that has dogged this hard working and humble man throughout his 36 years. Born just outside Bristol on October 13, 1970, to bus driver Roland and his wife Yvonne, a supermarket cashier, Paul - who's one of four children - 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," laughs Paul. By the time he reached 11, he was part of one of the best church choirs in Bristol. But it was when he hit 16 that his love of opera took hold. "I bought a cheap recording of Carreras," he recalls. "It was the first time I had heard Che Gelida Manina (Your Tiny Hand Is Frozen) and I was so moved by it. To this day La Boheme remains my favourite opera." Although Paul has performed at amateur level, most notably with Bath Opera, his chronic lack of self esteem and fear of rejection always prevented him from trying to make it professionally. " As I saw it, if I never asked - never put myself out there - then I'd never get told "No",'says Paul. "It was safer that way." So instead, he carried on with his day jobs - which have included stacking shelves in a supermarket and, most recently and famously, selling mobile phones, where he was told by one of his superiors that he was a 'natural salesman'. "But I knew I wasn't," says Paul. "When I was selling, I always felt like I was putting on an act. When I sang, that's when I felt I was myself - the real me." In 2000, Paul used savings and a bit of money he'd won on a quiz show to attend a three-month summer school in Italy, where he learned the language and got to indulge his passion further. He even got to sing in a masterclass for his idol, Pavarotti. But he was about to be dealt a cruel blow. In 2003, he suffered a burst appendix. While undergoing treatment for this, doctors discovered a benign tumour on his adrenal gland. It was successfully removed but while he was recovering, he was knocked off his bike and broke his collarbone. "Of all the health problems I'd been through, breaking my collar bone was the most painful and it took months to recover," says Paul. " I got very, very low and for once, singing was the last thing on my mind." And he might have given up forever, had it not been for Britain's Got Talent - the talent show for today's generation, created by Simon Cowell and co-producved by his Entertainment company Syco TV, which last week was celebrating a double whammy. In a first for a reality TV format, the Got Talent shows on both sides of the Atlantic - Britain and America - were at number one, with more than 13 million viewers tuning in to see Paul win the final of the British version and the same figure welcoming back a second season of America’s Got Talent in the States. (The format has now been commissioned worldwide and will be shown in 40 countries by the end of the year!) Though it's fair to say that when Paul strolled awkwardly - almost apologetically - onto the Cardiff stage for his first Britain’s Got Talent audition a week before that final, in his now infamous £35 Tesco suit, and announced to Simon and fellow judges Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan that he was going to sing opera, they never thought for one minute they were looking at their winner. Until he opened his mouth and started to sin

Pots=GGs Leader In Disguise?

As title

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Well, he won! He won not only $ 150,000, but also a million dollar contract to record his first CD! Paul, you son of a gun, you did it!!

Paul Potts in Empire State

see Paul Potts' rise to fame from a cell phone salesman to international singing sensation.

Mr Potts....A man who knows about the value of things, not the price.

the winner of BGT Watch the most talented performer England has EVER seen. KEYWORDS: Simon Cowell Piers more... Morgan Amanda Holden Anthony McPartlin Declan Donnelly Ant & Dec Geordies Reality Talent show Paul Potts Damon Scott Kombat Breakers The Bar Wizards Dominic Smith Craig Womersley Tony Laf Bessie Cursons MD Productions Crazee Horse Doctor Gore Luke and Charlotte Jake Pratt Scott Holtom Connie Talbot The Freerunners The Mini-Mezzos Crew 82 The Bar Wizards

Silicon Valets - Living in a Metal Thing (nathan jay remix) from Ideal (a Baby Cow production for BBC) By Graham Duff, starring Andrew Lee Potts http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/ideal http://www.babycow.co.uk http://www/myspace.com/idealtv http://www/myspace.com/nathanjaymusic

Today on The Daily Reel...YouTube heads to Europe to meet Paul Potts... Goodnight kisses are explained by VideoJug... "Prom Queen" is crowned with an Emmy Nomination... and the hangover is no longer a mystery thanks to Jonathan Watts and Waverly Films.

I am not sure how a talent like Paul can go undiscovered for years – but he apparently did. Selling mobile phones from a dusty old warehouse in southern Wales, Paul dreamed the dream so many of us dream at least once in our lives. When he got onstage and told the judges that he will be singing opera, a few eyes were rolling, and his slightly disheveled look and shy demeanor did not much to up the ante; nobody seemed to be expecting much. But then the music started, and Paul, with his head a little tilted to the side, started to sing…..I have no words to describe the feeling his amazing voice induces: Awe? Amazement? Entrancement? The audience went ballistic, and so did the judges. Paul was living his dream, and we dared to dream with him. Nobody knows yet who is going to win the competition. But one thing is for certain: Paul Potts will never again have to rely on selling mobile phones to make a living!

On DVD October 16! Sarah Wolfe was the only living survivor from the massacre at the Vanacutt Mansion, but no one believed her claims that ghosts were responsible for the gruesome murders that took place there. Now her recent and questionable suicide leaves her sister, Ariel, no choice but to devote herself to finding out who - or what - was responsible for her death.