Jonathan Antoine shows "The Prayer" has Staying Power

Pencils and Pop-Culture: Jonathan Antoine Shows “The Prayer” Has Staying Power

It’s the video seen ‘round the Internet this week: a chubby, socially awkward, unkempt teenage boy takes to the stage with his more-polished looking partner, then opens his mouth and unleashes his voice with a performance of “The Prayer” that blew even Simon Cowell out of his seat.

The boy is seventeen-year-old Jonathan Antoine, who entered “Britain’s Got Talent” this year with his singing partner Charlotte Jaconelli. Much like Susan Boyle of season’s past (in fact, Antoine has already been nicknamed “SuBoy” in reference to the former “Britain’s Got Talent” sensation), a plain exterior held a voice of richness, depth, and promise.

The performance brought the audience to its feet, and earned Jonathan Antoine comparisons to opera luminaries like Lucianno Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli. “Britain’s Got Talent” critic Simon Cowell went as far as to call Antoine, “a future star.”

Any singer will tell you that the when it comes to an audition, the song choice is as important as the voice. Jonathan Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli sang “The Prayer,” made famous as a duet between Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion. It’s a soaring, operatic pop music piece, but its history into the pop pantheon is a somewhat surprising one.

In 1998, Warner Brother’s decided to release an epic animated musical called “Quest for Camelot,” based on the young adult novel by Vera Chapman. Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster were drafted to write songs for the film, but according to Foster it wasn’t until a genius call by music supervisor David Carlin that a hit was born.

Carlin listened to a prayer sung by protagonist Kaylee’s mother, Julianna, after Julianna has been kidnapped. The section of music was no more than twenty seconds in length, but Carlin turned to Bayer Sager and Foster and said, “That’s the part you should develop into a song.”

Celine Dion had been contracted to provide the singing voice for Juliana (voiced in dialogue by Jane Seymour), and Foster knew that the only other person who could sing the counterpoint to the dramatic ballad was Andrea Bocelli, who was quickly becoming an international sensation.

“Quest for Camelot” itself was a flop, but everyone was right when it came to “The Prayer.” While “The Prayer” lost the Academy Award for Best Original Song, it became a staple of balladeers everywhere. Dion and Bocelli were the first to make it a hit, but a similarly successful version was recorded by soprano Charlotte Church and baritone Josh Groban when they sang it at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Now Jonathan Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli have their chance turn to make the iconic ballad their own. While both have a long way to grow as singers (and Jaconelli’s is more of a pop voice than an operatic one), there is no denying the power in their story, and in the “The Prayer” itself. It’s unclear how long they’ll last on “Britain’s Got Talent,” but they’ve made one heck of an impression.

Out of thousands of music notes, scribbled in pencil and pen, twenty seconds of music that originally wasn’t considered seriously by anyone became a hit that far outlasted its source. You can never tell where an enduring legend is going to begin, and who knows? Maybe that is just what we’re watching on “Britain’s Got Talent” with Jonathan Antoine.