I’m not a big fan of ‘reality television’. It’s become overrated in importance and is often just not very good.
However once in a while it delivers something that makes me take notice.
One example is the story of 18 year old Leon Jackson from West Lothian in Scotland, who has just won the UK TV talent show X Factor.
A year ago, Leon didn’t even know he could sing. Then he bought an iPod and started recording his own voice. Soon his friends were dragging him along to karaoke competitions.
Now he has just hit top of the UK charts with a version of “When You Believe“, previously a hit for Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey from the film Prince of Egypt.
He has a great voice and seems a genuinely nice guy so perhaps he has a good chance of sustaining the success.
Two things in particular strike me. First how the song lyrics reflect his own story: “Who knows what miracles you can achieve when you believe”.
Secondly, the measure of fame nowadays is that he already has an entry on Wikipedia, his own page on MySpace and hundreds of postings on YouTube.
There really can be miracles when you believe!
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