BIOGRAPHY
Hailed as the "Justin Timberlake of opera" this is just the start of an exciting new journey for Jonathan, whose natural modesty and delightful charm has remained unaffected by his well-deserved success. He says: "Four years ago I was at music college, and I went on the X Factor with some mates for a bit of fun. And now I've got my own deal, and a successful first solo album. I never, ever expected to be able to do an album with anybody, let alone on my own. I just wanted to be able to earn my living as a singer, in whatever way. So I'm completely blown away by the whole concept."
Jonathan achieved unprecedented success with G4: most acts discovered on TV reality shows have quickly fallen by the wayside, but their final concert was a Royal Albert Hall sell-out, and the group still had a recording deal when they decided to end the group. But what became clear is that Jonathan had the charisma and talent to take him yet further, as he has proven.
The concept for his subsequent solo album came from a love of movies, as well as music. "I've always loved movies, and the repertoire of songs from films, and so we came up with the concept to do an album of movie theme tunes, uncovering original lyrics where needed."
Brought up in Bognor Regis where both his parents were primary school teachers, and influenced by his mother's tapes of Pavarotti and the Three Tenors, Jonathan, the middle child, joined the West Sussex Boys Choir at the age of eight. He also learned to play the violin and trumpet. And music was not just a passion, but a solace. “I loved primary school, always loved the hands-on expressive subjects, particularly music," he says "I loved science too but as school got more academic, I found it harder and harder. It wasn't until I went to the Guildhall School of Music when I was 18 that I saw a poster about being assessed for dyslexia.
"I was diagnosed dyslexic. I had gone through school without anyone noticing it. But at least I knew why I had such issues. I felt alienated all the way through school, and the only time I ever chilled out was when I was on stage doing musical stuff." Jonathan started by landing the lead role in his primary school production of Joseph at the age of ten: "It really inspired and excited me. I got a real buzz out of that." He toured extensively with the choir, sang many times in Arundel Cathedral, to great acclaim. But in his teenage years his passion for singing had a downside. He was bullied at school because of it.
"People just thought it wasn't cool," he says. "I really got picked on, badly. What didn't help was that I had the worst acne ever. So when I was 15, I was in the school choir, doing what I loved, but getting bullied for it. I was in the rugby team wearing what they thought was make-up, but was in fact cream to treat my acne. I was also struggling with my school work at the same time- I felt completely alone. Music was my only joy." It all changed when he was asked by his music teacher to sing at the end of Year 11 Leaver's Service.
"I sang Andrea Bocelli's Time To Say Goodbye, and suddenly people understood my love of singing. After that I got the support of both teachers and pupils."
After a show-stopping performance of Love Changes Everything at a choral society concert in Littlehampton, his local MP, who was in the audience, arranged for him to have a preliminary audition at the Guildhall. He won a place two years later, and felt he had come home. It was during his happy student days that he started busking in Covent Garden with friends, to make ends meet.
"We didn't make much at first, but soon hit on a technique," he says. "We'd sing a couple of big arias, like Nessun Dorma, then something a bit less showy. Which meant that people would pay us and move on. If we didn't do that, they'd just stay. Then new people would arrive. I once went out on my own and made £520 in just three hours! "When the X Factor auditions were advertised on TV, he persuaded his busking chums from the Guildhall to enter, and the rest is television history.
And now, with his two solo album’s behind him, a performance in a touring version of the Mikado, he's found that performance years ago in front of his schoolmates was a small hint at future triumphs. Last year even saw him performing in the USA with Marvin Hamlisch and his orchestra for 10 sellout concerts.
"It's been a real whirlwind for me, I'm very lucky to have these opportunities, and I'm just glad things have kept developing. I love entertaining people, and touching them with what I've been lucky enough to be blessed with. My voice. I've always enjoyed that, since I was very young."
"My secret dream was always to be able to stand in front of an audience who had come just to see me, rather than because of the music I was singing, which is often how it works in classical music. I always, in my heart of hearts, hoped that one day it would come true. And now it looks like it has."
Jonathan has just completed a hugely successful 8 month national tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down The Wind for Bill Kenwright. His latest venture is playing ‘Boamer’ in the national tour of the new revival of Keith Dewhurst’s original stage adaptation of the much loved Lark Rise to Candleford again for Bill Kenwright.