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I know you did, don’t even try to deny it. As for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about? Break out the Kleenex—and get out of public view—and allow me to explain.
Earlier this week Scotland’s 47-year-old recluse Susan Boyle appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, the Simon Cowell judged British precursor to America’s mediocre reality show. The show is as a Night at the Apollo for stuffy Brits, where performers with varying levels of talent hope to make it through their performance without stopped by the judges for being hideously terrible. Suffice it to say, the show gets its fair share of crazies and delusional no-talents.
When Boyle’s segment on the show began, the audience, hosts, judges and viewers at home had already written her off as a frumpy lunatic. The second she appears on screen, the audience laughs. In all fairness, she does look like a cross between Farmer Hoggett's wife from Babe and the crazy cat lady down the street. To top it off, when asked whose career path she’d like to follow, she answered Broadway and West End legend Elaine Page, inciting mocking laughter from the audience of cynics.
Then she opened her mouth. And so did we—gaping in disbelief. She wasn’t just good. She was damned good. In the words of Coffee Talk’s Linda Richmond, her voice was “like butter.” There were chills and goose bumps all around, not just from the superb vibrato in her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream,” but from the sheer Rudy-esque inspiration of watching a little old lady with big dreams prove everyone wrong with her diva-worthy instrument.
“No one is laughing now,” said judge Piers Morgan. “I’m really from shocked.” Fellow judge Amanda Holden echoes, “I’m so thrilled because I know everybody was against you. I think we were all be very cynical, and that was the biggest wake up call everywhere.”
So Susan Boyle is here to teach us all a lesson. Pretty singing is pretty singing. Sometimes snark, cynicism and sarcasm need to step aside for the soaring music, the grand crescendo and the sight of an overjoyed, modest, Scottish nobody who has just achieved her dream.
Without further ado, ladies and gentleman, Susan Boyle.*
*Embedding has been disabled for this video.
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