I love these competition show audition videos in which people really surprise us with the depth of their talent. It’s like all of our dreams and ambitions are summed up in the several minutes in which an unknown hopeful shines in front of an awestruck audience. This type of fame isn’t necessarily lasting – just look at Susan Boyle – but it’s inspiring and touches that part of us that yearns for greatness and triumph.

Teacher Danyl Johnson, 27, of Reading, England wowed the four judge panel on Britain’s “The X-Factor” over the weekend with a soulful version of The Beatles’ “With a Little Help from My Friends.” His voice was rich and his stage presence skirted that fine line between confidence and cockiness. The guy really brought it, and his audition was so impressive that he earned a standing ovation from the judges. Simon Cowell called it “single-handedly the best first audition I have ever heard.”

Johnson explained that his audition came after some encouragement from his students:

After whipping the audience into a frenzy, receiving a rare standing ovation and his performance being hailed “the single best first audition” by the impenetrable Simon Cowell, it’s not hard to see why Danyl Johnson thought it might be a good idea to audition for this year’s X Factor.

But according to the 27-year-old teacher from Reading it took, ahem, A Little Help From His Friends to finally take the plunge.

We spoke to Danyl backstage, still on a soaring high after his mind-blowing performance and it seems we have his pupils to thank for the talented teacher bounding onto our screens.

“I said to the kids if they did really well I would sing at the end of term… I sang and they went absolutely insane! They went mental! They were, like, ‘you should do The X Factor!’ he explained excitedly. “So I thought, ok maybe I should.”

Until now Danyl has had the tricky task of keeping his audition a secret from his students.

“I still haven’t told them…I can’t wait!” he revealed. “But I wanna make sure I do them proud.”

After his riotous routine on stage we think the secret might be out for the dance and drama teacher and we’re sure he’ll receive straight A’s from his proud pupils.

Not only does this self-confessed “free spirit” have a love for belting out a tune, but Danyl can also add song-writing to his repertoire.

“I’d love to write for myself and others, as well as performing.” he confessed.

And with bootcamp now on the cards we can look forward to discovering what other talents this teacher’s pet has up his sleeve…

[From XFactor.itv.com via PopEater]

That performance really made my Monday and I’d love to see more of this guy. He does have quite a healthy dose of self esteem and it looks like it served him well on this first audition. Johnson might want to make sure to keep his ego in check, but he definitely has the talent to back up his confidence. I don’t think we’ll need to worry about him shying away from the spotlight now that the world is watching.