Paul Potts first sang opera in 1999 in a karaoke competition, dressed as Luciano Pavarotti. That same year he appeared in the Michael Barrymore talent show My Kind of Music. Although he did not take first place, he won UKP 8,000 - enough to help pay for vocal lessons in Italy, during which he was selected to perform in front of singers Luciano Pavarotti and Katia Ricciarelli.

For the Bath Opera of Bath, Somerset, he performed leading roles on four occasions, after beginning in 1999 as both The Prince of Persia and the Herald in Puccini's Turandot: Don Basilio in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro in 2000; Don Carlos in Verdi's Don Carlos in 2001; Don Ottavio in Mozart's Don Giovanni in 2003; and Radames in Verdi's Aida in 2003.

He also performed the role of the Chevalier des Grieux in Puccini's Manon Lescaut for the Southgate Opera Company in London, an amateur company, in May 2003. Additionally, he sang for the Royal Philharmonic in front of an audience of 15,000 and toured Northern Italy as a soloist.

In several interviews, Potts revealed that he performed Aida despite doctors' wishes to remove an adrenal tumor they had discovered during his illness from a burst appendix, and performed Manon Lescaux shortly after the surgery to remove it. Potts broke his collarbone and suffered whiplash in a bicycle accident in 2003, which prevented him from pursuing opera as a career. The mishap and financial difficulties that followed led him to enter the talent show.