Welsh baritone Rhydian Roberts captured attention on The X Factor by delivering pop material in an operatic register, following the path blazed earlier by G4. Born in 1983, he initially devoted himself to rugby union and competed at local level with the ambition of turning professional for Swansea RFC Ospreys. A performance of Bizet’s Carmen, attended at his mother’s invitation, ignited a passion for classical music that redirected his ambitions. He spent a gap year teaching in South Africa before securing a scholarship to Birmingham City University Conservatoire, where he trained as a singer. During his studies he collected several prizes, among them the Kathleen Ferrier Society Bursary for Young Singers, and earned an immediate engagement with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra as Morales in Carmen. After graduating in 2007 he tried out for the title role in Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat through Andrew Lloyd Webber’s televised search Any Dream Will Do yet was eliminated before the live shows.
Later that year Roberts entered the fourth series of The X Factor. Early doubts about an apparently arrogant persona—later revealed to the press as a construct created by the production team—did not prevent mentor Dannii Minogue from advancing him to the live rounds. Vivid interpretations of numbers associated with P!nk, Pet Shop Boys, and Meat Loaf quickly endeared him to British viewers, positioning him as the frontrunner. Despite a warmly received duet with Katherine Jenkins during the final, he finished second to Scottish singer Leon Jackson. Simon Cowell nevertheless offered the runner-up a £1 million recording contract with Sony BMG. Roberts’s self-titled debut album, containing songs written by Jim Steinman after the producer viewed X Factor footage on YouTube and a collaboration with West End performer Idina Menzel, was scheduled for late 2008.
While still benefiting from the momentum of his television exposure and first release, Roberts began preparing his second project, the classically oriented O Fortuna, with composer Karl Jenkins in 2009. The album included joint performances with Bryn Terfel and Kiri Te Kanawa, appeared before year’s end, and earned a Classical Brit Award nomination. For his third collection, Waves, issued in 2011, he merged operatic-pop delivery with 1980s synth-pop covers including “The Promise” and “No More ‘I Love You’s.’” In December of the same year he issued Welsh Songs: Caneuon Cymraeg, a set of traditional material performed entirely in Welsh. The release coincided with a Welsh television series in which Roberts auditioned singers across the country; eight successful contestants later joined him and several guest artists on stage.
Alongside his solo recordings, Roberts made his theatrical debut on the 2010 European tour of The War of the Worlds and subsequently appeared in We Will Rock You (2010), Grease (2011), and The Rocky Horror Show (2012). His fifth studio album, One Day Like This, returned in 2014 to the theatrical classical-crossover approach that had first attracted his audience.
