Biography

Jonathan Ansell, the lead singer of G4, is poised to become a huge solo star. The charismatic young singer with the sensational tenor voice, who shot to fame three years ago with the pop opera group on the X Factor, has signed a solo deal representing an investment of £1million over five albums solo with Universal Music. Jonathan, who quickly became the stand-out favourite of the fans, achieved amazing success with the classically-trained group, who announced their split earlier this year. They performed their last concert this August, having notched up three hit albums, and sales of two million, in the three years they were together. It has been breath-taking in its speed, and ground-breaking in its success, but now Jonathan’s career is set to explode into an even more dramatic dimension as he prepares to go into the studio to record his debut solo album for Universal, who wanted to sign him when he first appeared on the X Factor.

Dickon Stainer, Managing Director of Universal Classics and Jazz says, “We are thrilled to have signed Jonathan Ansell. He will bring a new excitement to the classical world as a solo artist, just like Justin Timberlake did for pop.” It is 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: “Three 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. 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.

“Quality and talent win through,” says his new manager Jonathan Shalit, the man who discovered Charlotte Church, and who also has Myleene Klass in his stable. “From the first moment I saw him I thought he was a star. I wanted to work with him the very first time I saw him on stage. G4 was great for him, but his solo career is long overdue.”

“I had a fantastic time,” says Jonathan. “I look back on G4 with huge pride. We put a lot into it, our hearts and souls, and we really developed and grew. But I wanted to leave while we were still pleased with what we had done, and I felt we had run our course.

“So although I’m sad the group ended, it is ultimately a good feeling. And what’s important for me is just to be able to sing. 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.”

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 certainly television history.

“It didn’t matter that we came second,” he says. “It was amazing just to be part of the live finals. And it was the start of so many wonderful experiences, so many things I never imagined. And now this solo deal of my own.

“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 might.”

Jonathan, a surefire superstar in the making, won’t have much longer to wait.