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Jon Courtenay is a musician who won Series 14 of Britain's Got Talent, and who received Ant & Dec's Golden Buzzer. He is from Mossley in Manchester, and he had been playing the piano since he was 5.
In his audition, he performed an original song, beginning with making fun of the Judges, before talking about his own story, his wife and two sons, and his late father who always wanted him to audition for the show. The song finished with the words 'This is Me', in homage to the song of the same title from The Greatest Showman. Once his audition was complete, his teenage son Nathan joined him on stage. Simon described the performance as 'a wonderful audition', with Alesha adding 'it had everything, and at the end it had us moved to tears'. Ant and Dec then entered the stage and pressed their Golden Buzzer, sending them automatically through to the next round.
In his Semi-Final performance, he performed an original song called 'When I Was A Boy' about being a child. At the end of the performance, he brought his mother onto the screen as part of the Virtual Audience. David remarked 'it’s funny, it’s touching, it’s unique to you – I just couldn’t fault it', with Amanda adding 'I think this is one of the best Golden Buzzers we’ve ever had on the show'. Courtenay won the Judges' vote, advancing directly through to the Final.
Courtenay's Final performance focused on the topic of small things making people happy, including remarks about lockdown and being in the Final. Amanda described the act as 'the exclamation mark of 2020', with Alesha adding 'what a unique person you are to make us laugh and cry all in one act'. Courtenay won the Public vote, making him winner of the series.
After BGT[]
In December 2020 Jon performed at the 'Royal Variety Performance 2020', and appeared as a guest performer on 'This Morning', performing an original song in order to open the shows 2020 Pantomime of 'Cinderella'. In Winter 2020 he was the closing act of the Britain's Got Talent Christmas Spectacular.
In February 2021, Courtenay revealed that he was battling with skin cancer during his time on the show, however did not disclose this to producers as he did not want it to be used as a 'sob story'.[1] He encouraged other people to check themselves for similar signs, and wrote a song entitled 'The Mole Song' to help spread awareness.[2]
In April 2021, Courtenay appeared as special guest performer on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, wherein he performed an original song as a part of the series finale's 'End Of The Show, Show' segment.
In May 2022, he appeared as a Guest Performer to open the seventh episode of Series 15, wherein he performed his own original song which surrounded auditioning for the show, and how he put off auditioning for several years prior to 2020, whist his performance was accompanied by several memorable acts who had auditioned for the show in previous years.
In June 2022, he once again appeared as a Guest Performer during the fifth Semi-Final of Series 15 wherein he performed his own song about what it meant to be British before then going on to introduce a Guest performance of 'I Vow To Thee My Country' by Dame Vera Margaret Lynn made by Colin Thackery, The D-Day Darlings, The D-Day Juniors & The Chelsea Pensioners Choir.
Trivia[]
- This is also the first (and so far only) case in Got Talent history that an act who received the Golden Buzzer from the show's host(s) won the series.
- He is the first ever Golden Buzzer act to win the main show. He was followed by Axel Blake in Series 15 who became the second ever act to accomplish this feat.
- Courtenay is the highest placing golden buzzer from hosts Ant & Dec, beating Jasmine Elcock & Matt Edwards shared record of 4th place.
- Jon is the second BGT winner to win the judges choice in the Semi-Finals to advance to Final, with the first having been Diversity.