Greg Pritchard: 'Britain's Got Talent' Reaches New Heights
When I first laid eyes on the latest buzzy Britain's Got Talent sensation, 24-year-old Welsh waiter Greg Pritchard, I sort of assumed he was the across-the-pond equivalent of Adam Lambert.
Greg definitely had the Lambert Look I wanted to know better: copiously product-placed hairdo, expertly applied guyliner, H&M black pleather, ambiguously androgynous rocker-boy image, and obvious natural charisma. I only hoped that he'd also have Adam's incredible vocal range.
Well, the bloke had range, all right:
Blimey. This "male soprano" was a whole lot prettier than Susan Boyle (no "makeover" necessary here)...AND his voice was about, um, 18 octaves shriller! He in fact possessed a higher-pitched tone than even Britain's Got Talent's pre-pubescent singing ballerina, Hollie Steel.
While the Britain's Got Talent TV drama has always been completely and rather formulaically based on fakeouts (i.e., the judges and audience assuming a contestant won't be able to sing a note, then being proven very, very wrong), this latest BGT stunner may have been the most surprising yet. Greg's performance was definitely disconcerting at first, hearing such a glass-shattering falsetto emanating from a ruggedly soul-patch-accented male mouth. Certainly the shocked silence in the Britain's Got Talent auditorium was indication of this gender-bending, mind-bending confusion, as was the temporarily speechlessness of the normally loquacious Simon Cowell.
And when Simon eventually said, "That shouldn't have just happened," it was unclear whether or not he was actually impressed.
But yes, it did happen...and yes, it should have happened. Greg's vocals (like "a dog meowing," according to what Simon intended as a bizarre, almost Paula Abdul-like compliment) may have been an acquired taste upon first listen, but his "Nessun Dorma" performance was still bloody gob-smacking, as the Brits might say.
Backstage, one of the BGT emcees wondered aloud about Greg's seemingly helium-enhanced voice: "Surely he can't get any higher!" But I think Greg's career is about to soar to great, Adam Lambert-esque heights.
But he is no Adam Lambert.