Jonathan and Charlotte have a confession to make. 'I've actually never been to an opera,' says Jonathan Antoine, 17. 'Neither have I,' admits Charlotte Jaconelli, 16. Why would they? Jonathan and Charlotte are two regular teenagers from Chigwell, Essex. They met at state school in the music room and became close friends during their GCSE options year. Charlotte heard Jonathan singing Bring Him Home from Les Miserables, just after his voice had broken, through the wall. 'And I thought who is that? Damn! That boy's got vocal chords.'
Jonathan and Charlotte have much better things to do with their time. Whatever basic stereo-typing has gone into giving their home locale a particular notoriety, these two talented young people could not smash the TOWIE (The Only Way Is Essex, TV show) cliche any harder.
Jonathan's listening choice at home is extreme metal ('I like Periphery and Tesseract. Do you know, in that same sort of vein, Monuments? I know the lead guitarist, John Browne') and extreme hip-hop ('would it be really boring to say that Yonkers is my favourite Tyler the Creator song?') and he has recently been charmed by the alt-country sounds of Neutral Milk Hotel. Charlotte’s obsession is musical theatre and she happily listens to Louise Dearman, Mumford & Son’s and, 'yes, a bit of Rihanna'. They both say that humble singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is the artist that currently speaks to their generation most and is one of Charlotte’s all time favourites.
They were just two regular teenagers that adored their mums (both), with one hating school (him) and then other loving musical theatre (her) when Charlotte made the decision, on both their behalves, to audition for the nation's favourite talent show, Britain's Got Talent.
