Where is America's Got Talent's Susan Boyle?

Since America’s Got Talent began its fourth season five weeks ago, everyone has been asking the same question: Where is AGT’s Susan Boyle?

If you are somehow not already familiar with her, Susan Boyle was a contestant on the most recent season of Britain’s Got Talent, whose plain looks and cheeky attitude sharply contrasted her remarkable singing voice. Mere days after the episode in which she was introduced premiered, her audition appeared on Youtube and became a viral video sensation, generating over ten million web hits in only a matter of days. Even though she only came in 2nd place overall (behind the dance group Diversity), she is still very much the iconic face of the AGT counterpart across the ocean.

So when AGT’s fourth season premiered, millions of Americans tuned in asking when they would get to see their own Susan Boyle. The open calls are now over, and that question still remains unanswered.

So who exactly was our Susan Boyle?

Based on similarities alone, the most likely candidate would be Kari Callin. Much like Susan Boyle, Callin is entering the competition in her forties, which could possibly make her the oldest of the female vocalists in the competition. She had a cleft pallet that, much like Boyle, prohibited her social life and singing career alike from developing, and above all else, sharply contrasted a wonderful singing voice.

The similarities end here, however. While Callin shares much in common with Boyle, she has not received the same reception from the world wide web. As of this moment, Youtube videos of her performance only average fifty to seventy-five thousand hits, a far cry away from Susan Boyle’s twenty-seven million. The parallels are many, but the reception to Callin was very different.

In fact, taking into account the number of strong female vocalists also confirmed into Vegas, it is actually possible that Callin may not even qualify for the Top 40.

Click here to see her audition on Youtube.

Only one performer so far has produced a video which has surpassed one million hits on Youtube: Kevin Skinner, the former chicken catcher turned country western singer. Skinner’s case is the exact opposite of Callin’s; he has the numbers to back up his claim to Boyle’s legacy, but has none of her hallmarks to back it up. One has to ask: Is Skinner a hit because of his talent or his painfully goofy farmboy introduction?

The latter seems more likely. As has been written in many prior articles, southerners and country western listeners are among the most rabidly loyal voters in the nation. It could therefore be that Skinner is not a hit because of his talent so much as because he is an unassuming country boy, which millions of Americans enjoy thinking of themselves as being. The truth of the matter regarding his talent, however, is that he could very well have entered the competition as a Garth Brooks impersonator and met with identical results. The million+ viewers that watched his clip may want to think he is their Susan Boyle, but while he does stand a much greater chance of making it into the Top 40 than Callin, Skinner ultimately is poised to become nothing less than a spoiler contestant.

Click here to see Kevin Skinner on Youtube.

Other contestants, such as the nine-year-old guitarist Tallan Noble Latz, the opera singer and cancer survivor Barbara Padilla, the young magician Jay Mattioli, and the hip-hop harpist (and AGT examiner’s personal favorite) Rashida Jolley have generated buzz across the internet, but while speculation around them is strong, it has not become evident with any of them based on the hits received to their Youtube videos.

So who is AGT’s Susan Boyle?

It could be that AGT has already seen its amazing performer. Two years before Simon Cowell said “What’s your name darling?” David Hasselhoff said four other other words that will never be forgotten:

“Oh no, a ventriloquist.”

Two years, a million dollar prize and a hundred million dollar contract later, people often forget that the expectations for Terry Fator were exceptionally low to begin with, much as they were for Susan Boyle. And just the same as Boyle, it only took one note from Fator to turn the audience around completely.

In fact, that which Fator does not have in common with Boyle, he instead shares in common with Diversity. Just as nobody would have guessed that Susan Boyle would be defeated by a dance group, few would have ever believed that the great Cas Haley could possibly lose to a ventriloquist.

At least nobody but the people who voted for them would have believed it. Web hits do not necessarily translate into votes, and ultimately hope will always triumph over statistics.