I cried

Even without the bullying being made apparent, I still would've cried.

His voice is utterly perfect for that song and bravo that boy !! Best of luck to him x

but we know it would be dragged up again , no matter how good he is

and thats what IMO gives him a bit of an advantage over the others

Its called the sympathy angle

I thought he was excellent - but I have heard lots of young boys who can sing just as well as him. Good luck to him - but I think there is a very real worry that his voice could break at any point - and even before the Royal Variety Performance.

Sadly so many of the classical male singers report the same sort of bullying throughout their childhoods - children can be very cruel when interests are in the minority - but attitudes will only change when parents/teachers/media etc give classical music the respect it deserves - why it should be seen as somehow inferior to popular music I shall never know - given the training that goes into the voice - instruments etc.

I havnt watched the programme before - and I was amazed by the reaction of the panel to the dog Gin. She was fabulous - but have they never seen Crufts? There are so many "dancing dog teams" and in the junior section many many talented youngsters training their dogs to much higher standards. Even so, the dog was my favourite!

Well I really enjoyed his performance but, like many others, I groaned and held my head in my hands at the though of another sob story.

I can't help suspecting though that he might have been put up to it by the producers rather than had the idea for himself. Let's face it - almost every kid gets bullied a bit at some time or another so if they think it makes better telly to take that angle then they could persuade him to follow that line.

I too hope that they don't overmilk that story line but I suspect they probably will. If they do then I think it might act against the boys chances since I snese there is a bit of a backlash to "sob stoires" on these sort of shows now.

If all the people on here rate Andrew so highly, Join the appreciation thread i have started for him, Common Folks!!! Maybe he will read this and it will give him the confidence booster he so much needs. , poor lad certainly deserves it.
Thanx

but he wont be able to sing pieu jesu again...

he'll prob have a one album deal. and then we'll never hear fro mhim again thats the trouble with these acts.

and thepublic forget once the nect series comes round

Yes, The Choirboys were miles better a few years ago (didn't hear anything of the 2007 ones), but apart from a few media tours and stuff (they went to Japan) they only managed one album before their voices broke, and they were 12, 12 and 10. That said, you'd expect them to be better - Ely and Southwell are considered higher up the hierarchy than Carlisle, musically.

Fair enough I don't disagree with you, I hate sob stories as well.

I don't agree with you - Yes of course there are talented musicians out there, but what made Scala unique was that they were four very attractive women who had got together and formed a modern, sassy quartet that would appeal to many more people than just the classical music lovers. Their style and presentation was great and I would love to watch them again and I'm not a classical music fan.

Same goes for Paul Potts - What made him unique was he had a humble and genuinely modest personality, but then delivered such an emotionally charged performance. Singers who have that emotional connection to a song are not all that common, though there are plenty who can hit the right notes.

Also - young Andrew made me cry (3 times) - and maybe his shyness and lack of confidence had something to do with that too, but his voice sounded spot on to me.

Andrew is on GMTV at 9.05am this morning.

i saw him earlier and he is coming on again now

He had a fantastic voice - Let'd just hope that it doesn't break halfway through the competition!

He came across as being genuinely very very shy, He didn't like to watch himself as it made him feel uncomfortable.
Although on a positive note, he did say he was getting some good response from those who used to bully him.
In the words of Andrew Castle "Its amazing how many people want to be your friend, when your famous". So true!! I Just wish him all the luck in the world.

A good response?

the impression I got was that he and his mother backtracked about the bullying comments

Andrew Castle asked about the bullies and then there seemed to be an awkward pause before young Andrew said "Its in the past now" and his mother said the same there was another pause and AC said "Its amazing how many people want to be your friend when you are famous"

as though the bullying only stopped on Sat night after the show

I still stand by what I have heard from friends who live nearby him that he is not bullied

It's Paul Potts all over again. He said he was bullied at school.

It's a shame Rhydian didn't say he was bullied

I've heard better.



Yes, there are but as last year's series showed, not all dogs perform in front of an audience and studio/theatre/arena set up in the way Gin did.

There are also many choristers. Many of them far better than Andrew.

Yes, Ben Inman (ex-Choirboys) for one. Look him up on Youtube... that is quite possibly the most natural voice I've heard from a chorister on record.

I was not expecting him to sound like he did! I was crying from the very first second, it was fantastic.

I looked up Ben Inman, his voice is fantastic, so clear and pure. Beautiful. But he wasn't on the show, Andrew Johnson was. so there's no point really in comparing their voices

AWWW, HE WAS SOOOOOOOOOO unpredictable.
bless him
shocked me.
Dec's face!

You can't, he's 15 now anyway...

He's good, but that's the kind of standard you'd expect from a cathedral head chorister.

Overrated is not the word. He wasn't even the best act of the week, let alone a potential winner.

I think he was. Only the string quartet were close really.

As some of you have sensibly commented - this boy is good but far from unique. Pop into your local cathedral most weekdays at around 5pm or similar and you will hear boys singing of an equal if not better standard. I have had first hand experience of cathedral music for many years now and have tried to support and promote it at all times. The cathedral music tradition of this country is glorious but so fragile. It depresses me when you get one or two boys who somehow find their way into the spotlight, get one or two years of intense exposure and make lots of money for record companies. Meanwhile, cathedral choirs continue to produce phenomenal music of a higher and far more moving standard every day to congregations of 5 or 6 people. Please, please, please, if you have been moved by this boy's performance - go and see and listen to it done in its proper context and setting!!!!! If you're not religious, don't worry! You will be very welcome to sit quietly and listen - it is an extraordinary experience whether you have faith or not.

Indeed. Sunday services often don't fill the cathedrals, and sometimes on midweek services there are more people in the stalls than in the congregations, IME.

I do hope having a choirboy on a major reality TV show raises the profile of choral singing and tries to stimulate kids to realise they DO have a voice and can do the same thing. Most kids can sing to a decent standard with the right training, they just don't realise or don't want to. If this kid can make choir sound cool then that's hardly bad.

But then we said all that about The Choirboys, and I don't think that's made any difference to potential chorister recruitment (despite one being ex-Southwell, which isnt far from here) or in the sense of getting more people to attend.