Jonathan Antoine and Charlotte Jaconelli, known collectively as Jonathan and Charlotte, were an English classical crossover duo from Essex. They finished as runners-up in the sixth series of Britain's Got Talent in 2012, being beaten by dancing dog act Ashleigh and Pudsey. At the time, they were aged 17 and 16 respectively. Despite not winning, the young duo were offered a £1 million record deal by Simon Cowell on his record labelSyco. They released two albums, Together in 2012 and Perhaps Love in 2013. In February 2014, the duo decided to split and embark on solo careers.
Career
Formation and career beginnings
Both were unknown prior to Britain's Got Talent, but were paired together at West Hatch High School, in Chigwell, Essex by the school's singing coach Jenny Ewington. Their head of music, Ginette Tomlinson, chose "The Prayer", originally performed by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion, which they sang for their GCSE and also at their teacher's church wedding ceremony. Before shooting to fame on the hit TV show, Charlotte was training full-time in Musical Theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London, while Jonathan was training classically at the Royal Academy of Music part-time as a junior.
''Britain's Got Talent''
Audition
Their first Britain's Got Talent performance together was in the Series 6 audition held in London, aired 24 March 2012. There they began the contest as "Charlotte and Jonathan" and sang "The Prayer". Although all judges were deeply impressed by the performance, Simon Cowell advised Jonathan he should "dump" the less-talented Charlotte, considering she would hold him back in the competition, but the pair remained together, and the act's name was reversed. The similarities to the Britain's Got Talent debut and initial judge and audience reaction to Susan Boyle was noted by many:
Semi-final
They participated in the semi-final which was held on 7 May 2012. The song, performed as a duet, was "Caruso", written by Lucio Dalla. The judges commented as follows:
Final
In the final, held on 12 May 2012, they appeared 11th, again performing "The Prayer", and received a standing ovation for their performance. Fans expressed disappointment that the duo did not win first place, but Charlotte responded by saying, "Oh my God, we came second out of 70,000 people, it's incredible, it's been amazing."
2012: ''Together''
It was confirmed the day after, that Simon Cowell was in negotiations to offer Jonathan and Charlotte a £1 million recording contract with his record label, Syco. They said they would be pleased to accept the contract, although also wanted to do some musical theatre in the future. The pair were later offered a contract, which would see them release their debut album around Christmas. Their debut album Together was released on 24 September 2012 in the UK. The album was officially released in the US on 30 October 2012.
A documentary following the young teenagers' success since the show was aired on ITV on 2 November 2012 at 9pm. It focuses on how the two British teenagers rose to fame, and what has happened since. It also includes interviews with those who knew them best. They tour Italy and France, aiming to complete their musical education – a "finishing school" for talent show graduates. They receive invaluable guidance from Luciano Pavarotti's vocal coach, Leone Magiera, at his beautiful Bologna penthouse; they see the home of Italian opera, La Scala, and in Paris are inspired by a masterclass with acclaimed tenor, Popstar to Operastar's Rolando Villazon. The singers are reunited with their old nemesis, Simon Cowell, who apologises for the mistake he made in suggesting they split. They also receive career advice from Katherine Jenkins and at the Classic Brits, host Myleene Klass congratulates them on their chart success.
2013: ''Perhaps Love''
Their second album was released on 14 October 2013. Jaconelli described the album as "an album of covers, some classical songs but also pieces that are less predictable than our first album. There are our interpretations of more modern songs like "You Got The Love" by Florence and the Machine and "Falling Slowly" from the musical Once." She also stated that they recorded some solo songs.
Split
In February 2014, the duo decided to split after both having been offered solo record deals by Sony Classical. Charlotte released her first solo album, Solitaire, in July 2014. Jonathan released his first solo album, Tenore, in October 2014. In a statement on their website, Jonathan and Charlotte said:
