Jonathan Antoine shot to fame as the runner up of Britain’s Got Talent in 2012. He sits down with the Mirror for his first newspaper interview since his autism diagnosis
Tenor Jonathan Antoine says his incredible voice has earned him the nickname ‘The Coma Whisperer.’ He found fame after his phenomenal audition performing The Prayer with then singing partner, Charlotte Jaconelli, on Britain’s Got Talent in 2012. But Jonathan’s most extraordinary achievement has been waking two fans – known as Fantoines – from comas with his songs.
He says: “Yes, I have woken two fans from comas. It’s not a bad nickname, is it? ‘Jonathan Antoine, The Coma Whisperer.’ It’s such a privilege to be played at all points of people’s lives: weddings, funerals, baptisms, breakups, during chemotherapy, during comas. It’ll never not be absolutely amazing to me.”
Speaking openly for the first time about his autism diagnosis, made in 2024, which became public last year, Jonathan has come a long way since the ITV talent show, when he was 17, which saw his duo come second, behind Ashley Butler and Pudsey the dog.
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His audition got 153 million views on YouTube and he sold 250,000 albums with Charlotte, before they split in 2014. Diagnosed with autism in 2022, which he revealed last year, Jonathan says BGT – and particularly Simon Cowell – saved him from suicide. Without them, he reveals: “I don’t think I’d be here at all. I made plans to end my life. I had just dropped out of school with no actual prospects. I was directionless. At the very right moment, it picked me up out of the dirt.”
Celebrating the release of his new album, Speaking To You, this week which includes All Of Me, originally sung by John Legend, he discovered he could sing, aged five. He laughs: “I owe it all to Adam Rickett. I used to dance around and sing along to Breathe Again. I used to sing in the playground and perform concerts.”
Sitting beside his recording studio in the garden of the home in Hainault, east London, he shares with his mum Tracy, dad John and sister Charlotte, who manages him, Jonathan reflects on his relationship with Simon Cowell. He says: “He’s a funny and an interesting man.” Recalling a meeting at the Syco offices, he says: “He comes in with a cigarette in between his fingers. This was after smoking had been banned indoors. But he owned the floor, he could do what he wanted.”
Jonathan, now 31, signed a deal with Cowell’s Syco Music label, releasing two albums with his BGT singing partner, Charlotte Jaconelli. He says: “Simon is incredibly successful, but always makes you feel like you’re the important one in the room. Your time was valuable to him. It’s a very impressive skill, and one that I’ve tried to adopt.”
Jonathan, who moved from Syco to Sony Classical in 2013, was the youngest tenor ever to get a number one album. His new album, released this week, is on his own label, Antoine Multimedia, started in 2016. While he hasn’t spoken to Cowell for a while, he continues: “Our paths have diverged a little bit. When I was under his record label he was actually fairly involved.”
Jonathan, who enjoys woodwork and carpentry in his spare time, has been through tough times before his spinetingling voice made him famous. He says: “I’ve always felt different. I’ve had weight problems since I was four. At school, I began to be ‘othered’ because of it, which wasn’t nice. In year four someone sat on me, to ‘see how much I weighed’. That stayed with me for a long time. Being neurodivergent, school was hard for me. Later, I began to realise that I dealt with things in different ways to other people. I had severe depression, and looked desperately around me for connection.”
Jonathan now knows he had undiagnosed autism. He says: “When I began my solo career I had a breakdown. It was 2014, I was 21. It was primarily an autistic meltdown, but I didn’t know at the time. I couldn’t keep up in the new rigmarole I found myself in, and I wondered why. My mum always thought I had something too, and mums always know.”
Singing gave Jonathan an escape. He explains: “I don’t see the people watching me very much. When I perform my eyes are closed 80% of the time. When I’m singing I can feel every synapse in my brain firing. No matter what I have clouding me that day – the responsibilities – it provides a sense of non-existence for a moment or two. Singing is my super power. Singing has saved my life. It’s given me the life I have now and allowed me to travel the world and meet amazing people. It’s given me purpose. And it’s given me a lifeblood.”
His famous BGT appearance, when he stood self-consciously on stage, hiding behind his long, bushy hair, only to transfix viewers and judges with his amazing voice, came three years after his first unsuccessful audition for the show. His schoolfriend Charlotte Jaconelli had asked him to team up with her in a text. The result was a standing ovation from judges Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams.
While BGT was tough, it was also an amazing experience for Jonathan. He says: “You can lose yourself in the machine a little bit. But, in a way, there’s a pleasantness to that as well, to become part of something bigger than yourself.” Now, being managed by his family has taken a lot of stress away for Jonathan. He says: “They actually care, they want the best for me.”
Often compared to Susan Boyle, who won BGT in 2009, Jonathan has fond memories of meeting her. He says: “I was dubbed ‘the male Susan Boyle’. There were parallels between us. People look at you and think one thing and then you perform and they think another thing. I was at the Pride of Britain awards and feeling extremely overwhelmed and nervous. I feel a hand on my shoulder and she leans in behind me and she whispers, ‘you’re brilliant’. Just that, those two words, in that lovely, beautiful accent. And then she walked off. And we’ve never spoken again. Beautiful. I’ll never forget that. She went out of her way to make this shy awkward young man feel like a king.”
Speaking out about his autism in the hope it will help others, Jonathan says he’s been inspired by fellow singer Lewis Capaldi, who has been open about his struggles with Tourette’s syndrome. He says: “Mr Capaldi is brilliant. Getting more informed about neurodivergence, about the many different types of people that exist on the planet, that is incredibly valuable. That’s the meaning of life, I think, is to improve conditions for as many as you can before you go.
“I’ve had so many people, especially since the diagnosis, who have reached out and said their loved ones, their kids, are autistic as well, or they themselves have sort of explored it more since.” Jonathan loves the diversity within society, advising people: “Just look outside and see that the world is huge and full of variable, beautiful ways of living. The way to be both a man and a person is to experience things, to grow yourself and become more cultured.”
Despite suffering with depression, Jonathan is more content than ever and thanks his family for their support. He says: “I’m still medicated. It’s not something that disappears or evaporates, but it’s something that you learn to deal with. I’ve got this beautiful family of mine that takes care of me and has always taken care of me, when I’ve been at my very lowest. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to repay them for that.”
Antoine’s mum Tracy says:
“I first realised Jonathan could sing when he was at primary school. He was in a choir and you could hear him above everybody else. Other parents said how good his voice was. He then asked for singing lessons at high school, and we said yes. And that beautiful classical voice was just… there. We’re not from a musical or stagey background, so he was a bit of a miracle.
“This is obviously what he was meant to do. He makes people happy when he sings. I don’t think I could be more proud, when you think about how far he has come and the sort of person he is. He has this amazing voice, we all know and love, but that’s not the only think that people love about him. He tries to make people feel like everybody is equally important. He has the ability to make people feel special. He was so shy on BGT, and I wish people knew the real him – how funny he is, kind, charming, intelligent. He’s not the person you saw on the stage all those years ago.
“I always knew there was something about him that was different. It didn’t matter what it was, but to be able to explain it is the most important thing, any mother would feel the same way no matter what age their child is. He hasn’t let his autism stop him. It’s not easy, especially as singer in his genre. But he’s not willing to fit into a box. And I’m so proud that he doesn’t just do what people want of him. He’s stayed true to himself, and done things in his way.”
*Jonathan Antoine’s brand new album, Speaking To You, is out now.
https://slinky.to/SpeakingToYou
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