Jonathan & Charlotte
Members:Jonathan Antoine, Charlotte Jaconelli
Genres: Classical
Years active: 2012–present
Labels: Syco (2012-present)
Jonathan Antoine (born 13 January 1995) and Charlotte Jaconelli (born 24 August 1995), known collectively as Jonathan and Charlotte, are an English classical music duo from Essex. They finished as runners-up in the sixth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2012, being beaten to the winning post on 12 May by dancing dog act Ashleigh and Pudsey. At the time, they were aged 17 and 16 respectively.
Both were relatively unknown prior to Britain's Got Talent, but were paired together at West Hatch High School, in Chigwell, Essex by the school's singing coach.[2] Their head of music chose "The Prayer", originally performed by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion, which they sang for their GCSE and also at their teacher's church wedding ceremony. Before shooting to fame on the hit TV show, Charlotte was training full-time in Musical Theatre at the Arts Educational School London, where she is also now continuing her Diploma and A Levels, while Jonathan was training classically at the Royal Academy of Music part-time as a junior.
Their first BGT performance together was in the Series 6 audition held in London, aired 24 March 2012. There they began the contest as "Charlotte and Jonathan" and sang "The Prayer". However Simon Cowell advised Jonathan to "dump" the (supposedly) lesser talented Charlotte, but the pair nevertheless remained together, and the act's name was reversed.[3]
The similarities to the Britain's Got Talent debut and initial judge and audience reaction to Susan Boyle was noted by many:
"It was almost a case of deja vu. An overweight, badly dressed contestant lumbers awkwardly on to the Britain's Got Talent stage, prompting the judges to roll their eyes at the inevitable car-crash of a performance to follow . . . only to be wowed by the powerful, pitch-perfect voice of the unlikely star."[4]
[edit] Semi-final
They participated in the Series 6 Semi-final 2, held 7 May 2012, and appeared onstage in 9th position. The song, performed as a duet, was "Caruso", written by Lucio Dalla.
The judges commented as follows:
Alesha Dixon: “Charlotte there was a lot of pressure on you tonight, and let me tell you, you held your own, you started that song so beautifully. And this is a special friendship, and there is special chemistry between you, and when you sang Jonathan, I felt that in every part of my body.” Amanda Holden continued: “It was just a tour de force. I didn’t see you the first time [at the auditions], I watched the YouTube clip like everyone else. You literally blew me back into my seat. I’ve always appreciated your friendship and I kind of leaned towards what Simon said in the audition, but now you work beautifully together.” Simon Cowell: “There is a lot at stake here and like I said at the first audition Charlotte, I believed you were holding Jonathan back. And you made the decision to stay together, Jonathan, and I have to say that was the best decision you could have made. I understand your chemistry, I understand the support. Charlotte you sang really, really well tonight.” He finished by admitting that: “That was one of my favourite ever Britain’s Got Talent performances.” David Walliams concluded the praise by telling the duo: “Well done for proving Simon wrong, I have no clue what you were singing about, but I wanted to cry! You are such fantastic singers. You could be winners on Saturday night.”
In the Series 6 Final, held 12 May 2012, they appeared 11th, again performing "The Prayer", and received a standing ovation for their performance. Some fans expressed disappointment that the duo did not win first place, but Charlotte responded by saying, "Oh my God, we came second out of 70,000 people, it's incredible, it's been amazing.
2012-present: Together
It was confirmed the day after (13 May 2012), that Simon Cowell was in negotiations to offer the duo a £1 million recording contract with his record label, Syco Music. They said they would be pleased to accept the contract, although also want to do some musical theatre in the future. The pair have now been offered a contract, with their first album [6] expected to be released on 24 September.[7]
Regarding the production of the album, according to The Sun, "The album will feature new songs and covers, including The Prayer, which the duo sang at their first audition and at the Final. They are working with producer Graham Stack who was behind the first three albums of X Factor opera stars G4."[8] Their debut album Together was released on 24 September 2012.
The contents of Together: The Prayer (featuring Only Boys Aloud); Caruso; Vero amore; Ave Maria; Forse (Unintended); Il mondo e nostro (Rule the World); Canto della terra; Ognuno soffre (Everybody Hurts); Chi mai vivrà per sempre? (Who Wants to Live Forever?); La prima volta (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face)
{On September 25th it was in 5th place on the U.K. Albums chart, after two days on the market.}
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