Why is Nessun Dorma becoming the go-to choice of music to perform for anything vaguely "classical"?

I'm a few weeks behind but catching up on episodes. You had the young guy with the high-pitched voice singing it, and then the drag act - and if those two weren't in the same episode they were consecutive weeks.

Also, I don't know how he's gone down on here but I really didn't rate the young impressionist-singer (apart from his Kermit and Miss Piggy). It's a bad start when you have to put up a picture of each person you're doing; a bit like those impressionists who have to say "Hello, I'm [insert celebrity's name]..."

I think it is because the producers of BGT don't credit the viewing public with any knowledge of classical music beyond Nessun Dorma and "that one they used in the cornetto adverts", but since the producers can't remember the real name of the cornetto music they force everyone to go for Nessun Dorma.

I think you're right!

My suspicions exactly.

'Somewhere' from West Side Story is also a favourite.

Or anything from "Wicked"

A bit like X Factor, I suspect they have a song list of 50 songs and every singer has to choose one of those songs.

It would explain why you hear the same songs every year on both shows guaranteed.

To say the prize is a spot on the Royal Variety Performance, perhaps some "variety" in the producer's song list wouldn't go amiss.

It's called " Just One Cornetto " AKA "O Sole Mio" AKA "It's now or never" by Elvis Presley

Well it seems like either Nessum Dorma or a Bring Him home.
Personally I'm waiting for a rendition of the Anvil Chorus.

That "vocal version" of Elgar's Nimrod the other week by that classical boy band was a bit of a weird one.

Just catching up with last week's. Another blimmin' Nessun Dorma!

Or Indeed Tony Martin's "There's No Tomorrow" - the version Elvis loved and asked to be adapted for himself.


'O Sole Mio translates as "My Sunshine", but is sung as "It's my own sun" to make the English fit the tune.

It's what I've seen in YouTube videos of people doing the same thing. I suppose if you're only singing a line of a song (in voices of celebs who may not been known for singing), there's not necessarily time for the audience to work out who you're doing and judge it before you've moved onto the next one. Putting up a picture means they only have to judge the likeness.

I don't get it either

Well they are hardly gonna sing a classical number in a language no one understands are they? At least with Nessum Dorma everyone knows the gist of it after hearing it for the millionth time.

Why not? Might broaden the audience's minds a bit.


I doubt very much that the majority of the BGT audience have any idea of the "gist" of Nessun Dorma...

It's one of the reasons why i stopped watching. Got fed up hearing Don't Stop Me Now and I'm So Excited every other bloody episode! Always during the montages.

It's about football isn't it?

I remember around the year 2008, might have been a bit earlier, there was a glut of television singing or variety talent shows on the five main channels, and there were about 5 winners of these shows who won by singing an opera song which was either Nessun Dorma or Pie Jesus.

I think people vote for these two songs because it makes them feel classy and sophisticated or something.
It's not as if with mainstream entertainment television they stray too far from Nessun Dorma or Pie Jesus.
As far as the TV producers are concerned the typical X Factor or BGT viewer believes that this is what opera is about and there's nothing betterer. If you haven't heard of other opera songs it's obviously because they must be crap.

If you're a singer applying to be on a TV talent show you pick either Nessun Dorma or Pie Jesus. That's it, those are your choices. You don't pick some other opera shit that nobody's heard of.

BIB - I don't know if this was deliberate, but it made me laugh as it's how Michelle Bass used to pronounce it on Big Brother 4 (I'm really getting intellectual now )

It's not just BGT, Nessun Dorma gets too much air time on AGT (like with BGT a guy won with that song) as well as the other Got Talents around the world.

The UK is a little obssesed with the song in general and I think it started with World Cup 1990.