Parke auditioned for Britain's Got Talent in London in front of judges Amanda Holden, Michael McIntyre and Louis Walsh (who was filling in for David Hasselhoff.) He performed "Feeling Good" and before the song finished, the entire 2500-strong audience and three judges gave Parke a standing ovation. He received rave reviews after his performance and received three "yes" votes and was through to the next round, with Walsh declaring that Parke "is the one to beat." Following the airing of his audition on the third auditions show on 30 April 2011, Parke quickly became the bookies favorite to win the show. Parke was then shown being put through to the semi-finals a few weeks later.
Parke performed for a second time during the semi-final on 30 May 2011, performing "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan. After his performance, he received praise from all four judges David Hasselhoff (who was not present at Parke's audition), McIntyre, Holden and Simon Cowell, who was only judging the live finals. Parke received the highest public vote of the night and was automatically sent through to the final.
Parke performed in the Britain's Got Talent Live Tour 2011, making appearances all throughout the UK. The tour opened on 12 June 2011 at Newcastle Metro Radio Arena and finished on 26 June at Bournemouth BIC. During the tour, Parke sang all three of the songs that he performed on the show, collaborating with pianist Paul Gbegbaje for "Make You Feel My Love". It was reported that Parke was going to be paid up to £30,000 for three performances on the tour, twice as much as the winner Jai McDowall.
Parke signed to Sony Music and Syco as a joint contract in 2011. The album, Ronan Parke, was released in the UK on 24 October 2011.
On 28 July 2011, Parke uploaded a video to YouTube of him performing an acoustic cover of Lady Gaga's "The Edge of Glory", which has attracted media attention. His Facebook page stated that a new video of him singing an acoustic cover would be released every week as part of a three-part series called Ronan Sings. The second video was an acoustic cover of "Make You Feel My Love" by Bob Dylan, which was uploaded on 10 August. Amazon also showed an exclusive video on the pre-order page of Parke's debut album of him performing an acoustic cover of "Forget You". A new video of Parke singing "Jar of Hearts", by Christina Perri, was released on 6 September 2011.
He also announced his first gig in his home county of Norfolk, and performed at Potters Leisure Resort, Hopton-on-Sea, for two nights, 22/23 October 2011. Parke also performed at Xscape in Castleford, West Yorkshire in August. Parke performed "Forget You", "Ben" and "Smile" at the Michael Jackson tribute show on 28 August 2011 at Blackpool Opera House.
Parke announced on Facebook that "A Thousand Miles", originally by Vanessa Carlton, would be the first single from the album and the music video released on 14 September 2011. The lyric video was posted onto YouTube on 2 September 2011.