Disagree totally with Sinister Supporter. That voice represents solid hard-core talent, the kind you can't fake. An image - whether it's bimbo or underdog-made-good - without talent will fade like the yesterday's-news that it is. But her artistic gift does have staying power on its own.   

Of course looks matter a lot in showbiz. But she doesn't have to go that route these days. Certainly the huge TV exposure and all the hype kick-started her and got our attention: without it we'd never have heard of her, nor would the bigtime US critics and journos . But Susan can opt out of the glitzy thing if she wants to and simply sing, and we will always be able to just listen. With the internet and streaming and individual downloads and all the other ways there are to access music, she has some choices now, and so do we. There's finally some room at the table for outsiders, specialist interests and general asymmetrical pegs who can bypass all the conformist round holes.

Not long ago she'd have had to submit herself to the grinding jaws of the all-powerful Star Machine, but no longer. I wouldn't start writing her epitaph (do I detect a note of gleeful cynicism?) just yet.


PS: I'd like to hear her sing Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler On The Roof, and It's Her Or Me (a.k.a. Now That I've Seen Her) from Miss Saigon. Also Sandy Denny's severely under-rated Ecoute Ecoute - the title of which is highly appropriate. So is the line "(s)he is of value now they say".