Kennington’s fourteen-year-old opera superstar Malakai Bayoh has topped the UK’s classical music charts for two weeks straight.
The Britain’s Got Talent contestant, who recently recounted his astronomical rise in an interview with the News, released his debut album Golden last month.
The St George’s Cathedral chorister captured the nation’s heart with a “flawless” rendition of Pie Jesu on the ITV talent show in May and later signed a record deal with Universal Music.
On the show, Alesha Dixon told him: “Whatever is pouring out of you was so heavenly and beautiful I actually went into a trance.” The YouTube clip has over 8.6 million views.
Malakai has previously said his mum was the first to see his potential, encouraging him to audition for the choir at St George’s Cathedral, opposite the Imperial War Museum, after hearing him sing around the house.
The young treble was thrust into the limelight aged twelve when he was cast as Oberto in a production of Handel’s Alcina at the Royal Opera House.
On the opening night, an audience member shouted “rubbish” as he sang his lines and booed him.
The Royal Opera House said that it was “appalled that a member of the audience behaved in this way”, and said that “steps have been taken to ensure the audience member in question does not return to the Royal Opera House”.
Malakai will also sing on the soundtrack of the upcoming movie Maestro, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper and produced by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
Asked how his friends reacted to his newfound fame, Malakai previously said: “They were all really happy for me and were like, ‘You’re famous now’. It’s just kind of normal. I still go to school. It’s not like a lot of change.”