Charlotte Jaconelli

Shooting to fame in the 2012 season of Britain's Got Talent, singer Charlotte Jaconelli recorded two U.K. Top Five albums as half of the duo <a href="spotify:artist:2haot4oxbeveqxow85SbTa">Jonathan & Charlotte</a> before she and singing partner <a href="spotify:artist:2oYXPOHsXljvSD7jDatP22">Jonathan Antoine</a> went their separate ways and launched solo careers. Born on August 24, 1995 in Chigwell, Essex, she developed a love for singing after being enrolled in stage school classes by her mother at the age of four. Jaconelli was paired with <a href="spotify:artist:2oYXPOHsXljvSD7jDatP22">Antoine</a> by her high school singing teacher. When the duo auditioned for Britain's Got Talent, she was studying musical theater at the Arts Educational Schools in London, while he was training as a classical singer at the Royal Academy.

In retrospect it seems an odd pairing; <a href="spotify:artist:2oYXPOHsXljvSD7jDatP22">Antoine</a>'s powerful, dramatic tenor was better suited to opera arias, Jaconelli's warm, mellifluous tones to West End show stoppers. Simon Cowell certainly thought so, recommending to <a href="spotify:artist:2oYXPOHsXljvSD7jDatP22">Antoine</a> that he ditch his "less talented" partner. However, the pair stuck together, eventually coming in second in the contest and winning a £1m record deal with Cowell's <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Syco%22">Syco</a> label. Their first album, Together, was a relatively straight classical crossover affair weighted toward <a href="spotify:artist:2oYXPOHsXljvSD7jDatP22">Antoine</a>'s talents with a full quota of "popera" versions of pop standards, but their second, Perhaps Love, was a peculiar mash-up of pop, classical, and musical theater numbers.

While in discussions for a third album, the pair split amicably over musical differences. Each was offered the option to continue recording for Sony as a solo artist, and each accepted. Jaconelli's debut solo album, Solitaire, was released in 2014. On it, she finally got to pursue her first love in earnest, with the majority of the tracks taken from films and shows. ~ John D. Buchanan, Rovi