Hainault’s very own opera star is back.

Nearly ten years on from his break out performance on Britain’s Got Talent, Jonathan Antoine is set to return to the stage next month ahead of a North American tour.

On November 18, Jonathan will take to the stage at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea for a stripped-back Christmas concert, backed by just a pianist and string section.

After a long period without performing due to the pandemic, Jonathan told the Recorder how excited he was to be back.

“It’s not just my job and where I get my income from, it’s my passion,” said the singer, who got his break as a shy 17-year-old on ITV's variety show.

“All this new stuff has come out and I haven’t been able to perform it – it’s really great to get out there.

“I want to give the people who have been waiting something fun and exciting and new.”

The Cadogan Hall show will be followed up the next day with the release of a new “platinum” edition of his ChristmasLand album, which came out in 2020.

The new version features six new tracks and a DVD of his Christmas 2020 livestream at Union Chapel in Islington.

Jonathan had wanted to take the original album to North America on tour, but Covid interrupted his plans.

He said: “A lot of the places that I am going to end up going are places I have never been before.

“There are people who have been waiting since 2012, when I first got up on that stage on the TV, and I’d really like to finally meet them and sing for them."

Jonathan, now 26, still lives in the area he grew up and says he “can’t imagine leaving beautiful Hainault”.

He added: “People on my street, we know each other, it’s nice and tightly knit in the community.

"It’s beautiful to be able to have that sort of distant familiarity with your neighbours, to know that you are part of their life in some way.”

Jonathan says he is still trying to figure out what his next big project is, but has already started work on a “weird” new track with Leo Z, which he says is “outside the classical wheelhouse”.