A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,USA Supporter
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 10:50 AM

no matter what this woman has a set of pipes and should have a contract, as a loyal viewer of American Idol and America's Got Talent, I've never seen ANYONE and I mean ANYONE with more talent in all the years these shows have been on.

What impressed me the most is that Simon was shocked, he never smiles that much or gives that much praise to anyone on American Idol not that some don't deserve it they do but this lady definately deserves a CONTRACT and I would fly back to London to see her perform the show on stage with the cast as well.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: SINSULL
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:09 AM

I watched some of the other videos from the show and it is definitely a kinder/gentler Simon. He would torn the Evans family apart on American Idol. Loved the Greek Lord of the Dance. I laughed until I cried.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: glueman
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:14 AM

Oops. I meant to say Simon's mind was probably going ker-ching!£$£$£$£$

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:16 AM

So.... MY first thought was- does she know any old Scots ballads.

Who would like to her her sing "Jock O' Hazeldean"?

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:26 AM

Jock o' Hazeldean should, generally speaking, be left alone by all but Dick Gaughan.

I once used the same accountant that Cameron Mackintosh employs.
I can only assume that he charged the impresario more than he charged me because the accountant was total rubbish at evading the grasping rats 'n' cats and I have subsequently done it myself for a far lower tax bill.

It passes my understanding why anyone would want to sing any of the MOR mush out of his productions in the first place.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:38 AM

"
Jock o' Hazeldean should, generally speaking, be left alone by all but Dick Gaughan.

Tsk...I was blown away the 1st time I heard Jean Redpath sing it...and we have a friend here who sings it quite well. She is not famous, but neither was Susan Boyle.

I do not & WILL not subscribe to the idea that only certain people should attempt certain songs.

Now...back to Susan Boyle, who I still wish did folk music. Maybe she does.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: MMario
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:41 AM

I can think of a dozen or so songs I'd like to hear her sing....
Dumbarton's Drums
A Mother's Kiss
Castle of Drumoore

among others....

Subject: Review: Susan Boyle
From: Teribus
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:45 AM

Surprised that nobody has mentioned this. If you'd like to see someone soar watch and listen to this, the clip is just over 7 minutes long but stick with it for 1 minute 59 seconds to see an entire audience completely astounded:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Absolutely brilliant.

Subject: RE: Review: Susan Boyle
From: Stu
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:48 AM

There's another thread on this T - this might get bumped onto it.

A complete joy to watch - good on her!

Subject: RE: Review: Susan Boyle
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:49 AM

Null point for observation, teribus, there have been two threads on this already (now combined)

Subject: RE: Review: Susan Boyle
From: Teribus
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:55 AM

Just saw the other thread, my eyesight must be failing as I did check down through the thread titles before I posted, apologies to all.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 12:05 PM

It's nice to see that Teribus agrees with so many Mudcatters about SOMETHING!

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: beardedbruce
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 12:11 PM

4 hours, 18 minutes ago
   Unlikely singing sensation eyes date with queen

Story Highlights
Unexpected star grabs spotlight with more than 11 million YouTube hits

Susan Boyle fans want her to release an album -- now

Performance on "Britain's Got Talent" won standing ovation
   
(CNN) -- Television and YouTube singing sensation Susan Boyle has promised to be on her best behaviour if she wins the right to sing for the queen.

Susan Boyle sings "I Dreamed a Dream" -- and becomes a worldwide sensation.

The 47-year-old Boyle, who says she has never been kissed, was catapulted into the spotlight after her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical "Les Miserables," on the television show "Britain's Got Talent" at the weekend.

The winner of the show gets to sing for the queen at the Royal Variety Show.

Boyle has a long way to go though -- having just won through to the second round after judge Simon Cowell described her first performance as "extraordinary."

Still, she was already thinking of how she would behave.

"Whatever comes my way, I am ready. It would be lovely to sing for the queen. There would be less of the carry on from me, and more of the singing.

"She is a very regal lady, very nice, so I would be nice too, and just get up there and give it a bit of wellie (try)," Boyle told the show's Web site.

Boyle said she was trying to take her new found fame in her stride.

"It's a challenge. Life is a challenge sometimes but this is different. And I like to test myself.

"If it all gets too much and they lock me up, I want a great big strait-jacket with spots on it. A pink one... and a big zip on the back so I can escape."

A clip of Boyle's performance had more than 11 million views on YouTube by Thursday, and the world's media have beaten a path to her door in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland.

Cowell is reportedly already trying to piece together a record deal for Boyle, an unemployed charity worker, who lives with her cat, Pebbles.

For fans of Boyle, who attracted laughs and sniggers when she first appeared on stage before winning a standing ovation, the album cannot come quick enough.

CNN has been inundated with hundreds of messages of support for Boyle.

Simone said: "I've been so depressed all day but hearing this woman sing and reading her story gave me a pick-me-up... I look forward to hearing more of her and I hope to buy her CD as soon as it hits the shelves."

Cynthia wanted Cowell to move quickly.

"She brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. I hope Simon does get her a record contract...I'll buy her CD. Never judge a book by it's cover. Susan Boyle, you go, girl!"

Jim described Boyle's talent as "unbelievable" and "beautiful."

"I wish Susan the very best in her new life and hopefully someone has put her under contract. Thank you for such a beautiful song."

Larry wanted to offer Boyle a kiss.

"I have just heard you sing for the first time -- thanks to CNN -- and I must tell you this: You are a fabulous talent, simply amazing to me that no one took advantage of your voice and passion up until now. I am a happily married man, but if I were not, and if I was in the audience, I can guarantee you that I would ask for a kiss, and if you were gracious enough to indulge me, well that would have been one of the great highlights of my life. Looking forward to the first of many albums."

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Teribus
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 12:20 PM

When she announced what song she was going to sing, one of the panel was heard to remark "Big song". The thing that amazed me with the performance was within three lines of lyrics she had the whole audience on their feet applauding like mad. Don't quite know how you'd stage manage that. At forty seconds into the pre-performance interview with Ant & Dec the lady said that she was going to "rock" the audience - she certainly did that. She thought she had the audience after the first verse, she knew it as she paused in the small instrumental interlude before the last verse and then she really let them have it, as beautiful and perfect as watching a Spitfire perform a "victory" roll. The very best of luck and good fortune to her - absolutely magnificent!

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 12:49 PM

well I have watched the video 3 times now and am still crying. And I don't like show tunes. I am just a soppy old emo-mamma who always falls for the underdog.

She has got magical stuff in that voice and her stage presence.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 01:05 PM

The performance of Ruthie Henshall in the actual play was of course brilliant, but in making any comparison between it and Susan Boyle's rendition you have to remember that Ruthie had a silent audience while Susan had to make her performance heard over the ecstatic screaming of the Britain's Got Talent audience, and had to stay in character and ignore the thrill she must have felt at that response all through the rest of her performance: absolutely amazing, mind blowing. Any of you think you could have accomplished that?

Charles

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: andrewq
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 02:04 PM

It's nice to see an ordinary, unaffected, person show her talent in public despite dowdy looks. The hype machine, though, is incessant and calculated to "do another Paul Potts" for Mr Cowell's ratings and bank balance. It is a good rendition of the song but hardly in the same league as that of many pro performers. I'd wager that you'd find similarly unpackaged talent the length and breadth of the country in many an AmDram society or Find Your Voice evening class. The only difference is that a bit of ordinariness was permitted onto prime time TV in the updated Victorian freak show that the metropolitan sophisticates have named "Britain's Got Talent". Good luck to Ms Boyle, it seems she needs it, but let's hope she doesn't believe the PR machine when her 15 minutes are over...

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alan Day
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 02:27 PM

" Ordinariness"? Andrewq
Snobbishness Andrew?
Al

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: andrewq
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 02:37 PM

Nothing wrong with ordinariness, Alan. Except when the marketing folk try to persuade us it is the second coming. Ms Boyle sang well enough but only got air time because she looked odd enough to build a marketable story around. Like all of these unreality programmes it is the backstory and how it is cynically mined that sells.

"Roll up, roll up, see the tattooed lady...."

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: frogprince
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 03:04 PM

Re the recent post by Beardedbruce: it sounds more and more like the lady has a terrific, intelligent sense of humor to go with the rest.

Glamorous? not at all. Wikipedia says "Glamour originally described a magical-occult spell cast on somebody to make them believe that something or somebody was attractive".

Beautiful? Watch her beaming, when she's totally in the song, and she knows she has the audience wrapped around her finger.

Other unknowns out there who are just as good? Probably; but any of them who are that good aren't a dime a dozen; any of them that good are that many undiscovered treasures.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Surreysinger
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 03:10 PM

Andrewq = there is absolutely nothing ordinary about what she achieved. She sang in front of a 4000 strong audience in the theatre, in front of three fairly intimidating and jaded adjudicators, in front of television cameras ... this is a woman who had only done small scale theatre and village hall type stuff before. She sang a VERY big ballad, with emotional overtones (considering her personal position, also very close to home) in front of an audience that was going nuts .... all enough I would have thought to phase even a seasoned performer... but she kept going, she sold the song, and she didn't falter. There is absolutely NOTHING ordinary about that at all. The marketable story has nothing whatsoever to do with her own personal achievement. All power to her - it cannot have been an easy thing to do, whatever anyone may think of her voice, performance or personal looks and background. She is now faced with super-high expectations from the audience in the next round - and that will not be easy to live up to either. It will be interesting to see how she copes and what she delivers up ... but there is still nothing ORDINARY about what she achieved.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: MMario
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 03:17 PM

the 11 million hits on you-tube aren't all due to "media hype" either. Sure - they might not have started without CNN coverage - but then again - they might have.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Jack Campin
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 04:00 PM

We need another Elaine Page like a hole in the head.

There are many singers with voices as good or better and equally unstereotypical looks who have FAR better taste. (Chris Miles or Gordeanna McCulloch, say).

If she sticks to that schlock I will be following her career with the utmost apathy.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 04:05 PM

Sorry to jump your case about this, glueman, but I have to admit I do tend to get a bit irked by the kind of person who insists on spoiling a perfectly good party by tossing a cigar in the punch bowl. I find your comments downright cynical. Maybe you do "know the biz," but so do I. In addition to my singing, I've spent a fair amount of my life in both television and radio studios, both on camera or mic, and in the production and planning end.

I think Marje has the right of it. Undoubtedly the initial screeners knew they had a "live one," but I'm sure the judges and the audience were hit between the eyes with the unexpected.

And I'm afraid that andrewq gets the same award for sourpuss of the month. What's the matter with you people!??

Ms. Boyle sang better—much better—than "well enough." In fact, I've heard a fair amount of Elaine Paige, the singer that Susan Boyle said she wants to emulate. Elaine Paige is a real powerhouse singer with a marvelous voice for the kind of songs she does. And Susan Boyle's singing voice is right up there in terms of strength and quality. Slightly different in the sense that Boyle's voice actually sounds a bit more "youthful" than Paige's.

When a person can sing like that, it doesn't matter what they look like. And the more I heard her sing, the more beautiful she got.

I'm looking forward to hearing much more of her.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: jacqui.c
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 04:12 PM

Nicely put Don.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 04:34 PM

It occurs to me there is another reason this story is so charming. Anyone else see the shade of Charlotte Vale here? This aspect may be a "chick thing."

SRS

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 04:48 PM

Wow! Well spotted, Maggie!

No, I don't think it's just a "chick thing." It's classic ducklings and swans.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alan Day
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 05:48 PM

There is no marketing folk Andrew.There will be but there isn't now.
Her performance was watched live by millions ,it is acclaimed by millions,nobody was trying to sell anything Andrew this was someone getting up on stage and doing a fantastic performance.She had her chance and delivered. There are many talented people out there,I agree, is that what you are trying to say? If they get up and perform equally as well we can applaud it, you may not .If you did not enjoy it,or you think Elaine Page should have pushed Susan out of the way and sang it,why not say so.Just remember that Elaine Page took her chance in the same way as Susan Boyle, the leading lady being ill and at the last minute Elaine being her understudy took the part and was an immediate success.
You summed it all up nicely Surrey Singer.

Al

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 06:26 PM

Susan has been cornered by the American morning television programs late this week. I watched part of an interview with CBS folks (go to Google News and enter her name and you'll find lots of links to stories). She looked rather cornered, and she needs a coach and some time if people are going to be setting up and doing television interviews. Eye contact doesn't matter for radio, but it does make a difference in television. Now that she's on the horizon, I hope people relax and give her time to catch her breath and get moving in a productive direction!

SRS

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Bill H //\\
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 07:05 PM

Not going to throw any cigars in the punchbowl. I just do not like "reality" shows and wish for more of the classic dramatic TV of yore---and which BBC still offers at times. That said---Susan Boyle---WOW.   

This has spread like wildfire on the internet and yesterday NPR covered it at length on radio---dare I say the wireless.

I watched it and was mesmerized.   Like the audience I thought--"...what the hell is this---another wannabe on a second rate (though popular) TV show.   It was like Toscanini had walked on stage wearing a mask and no one knew what greatness would follow. I can only hope she gains some fame and fortune from this since she has the talent that some of the "fluff" people (name your favorites---I nominate Hilton, Spears, etc;) do not.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Genie
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 07:46 PM

I don't like the cigars in the punchbowl either, but I do agree that Susan's sudden immense popularity is partly due to the contrast between (visual) image and vocal excellence-plus-stage presence.   I do hope that she neither finds fame/success limited to '15 minutes' nor feels she has to have some "extreme makeover (complete with lipo, dental caps, etc.) to be a star.
There was a time when some of our biggest stars, both male and female, were not "lookers." Ella Fitzgerald (who was initially told she'd never make it because she was "too fat and too ugly"), Kate Smith, Mama Cass Eliott, Janis Joplin, etc., were accepted for their talent. TV tended to change that, for women especially.   (The men, it seems, when built like Meatloaf or Luther Vandross or as ugly as Steven Tyler or Mick Jagger are still accepted as presentable on video, while the two plus-size women who sang "It's Raining Men" found themselves replaced by the studio in their own video by much slimmer and more glamorous looking women. And nobody seemed to hold Pavarotti's weight against him as an operatic leading man.

Still, if Susan wanted to do either commercial Gospel or musical theatre, I'm not sure her appearance would have to be a big hurdle. Not all major roles in musicals call for a young, glamourous actor/singer, and Gospel music does seem to embrace many an "average-looking" or not-so-svelte singer.   I think Susan's got a great chance of launching a notable career from this exposure. (Especially if Simon Cowell's in her corner.)

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alice
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 09:28 PM

ATTENTION!! ATTENTION!!

Did I get your attention?

"Cry Me A River" sung by Susan Boyle on a charity CD recording in 1999, now uploaded to You Tube. Only 1000 copies made.
As reported by The Scottish Daily Record newspaper.

Listen to Susan deliver this song!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI2DxkrgpgQ

wow
I love this woman!

Alice

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 09:32 PM

Undoubtedly some of the positive reaction to Susan Boyle was due to the contrast between what one expects when they first see her (unfortunate, but true) and what one actually gets when she begins to sing. But the fact remains that even if she were a strikingly beautiful woman, this would neither enhance nor diminish the pleasure and surprise of hearing an extraordinary singing voice.

I don't know how well it could work in musical theater, but opera is legendary for "casting against type" as far as appearance is concerned:   the middle-aged and substantially overweight soprano singing the role of a twenty-year-old ingénue in the process of tragically dying of "consumption" (tuberculosis). This, of course, is a stereotype about opera which, especially within recent years, no longer holds true. With sopranos around who look like Renée Fleming (Cuter than a bug's ear) and Anna Netrebko (Very glamorous. In fact, here's another shot of the internationally famous operatic soprano), or, on the male side, guys who look like Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky or lyric tenor Juan Diego Florez, opera company directors these days are casting as much for appearance as for voice.

When it comes to musical theater, I know they do like to cast to type. In fact, I went to high school with a lad who had a fine, rich baritone when he was as young as sixteen. He tried his luck on Broadway, and after being told repeatedly, "Frank, you've got a great voice, but—(fill in cliché or your choice)." He finally got cast in "Damn Yankees." "Because," he told me, "they thought I looked like a baseball player!"

But there seems to be a fair amount of latitude. I personally didn't think Ethel Merman was all that gorgeous, and in addition, her singing voice sounded more like an air-raid siren than a human voice. I'll swap you eight Ethel Mermans for one Susan Boyle.

If the world of musical theater is so uncivilized that it would not cast her in vocally suitable roles, she could still have a fine singing career. I'm thinking of "ghost singer" Marnie Nixon, whose voice was all over the place in movies some years ago. She dubbed in the singing for Natalie Wood in "West Side Story," Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady," and many others. Away from the movies, she had a substantial concert career. There is also the matter of recordings. But not just the usual collection of miscellaneous songs. One can get studio recordings of various full-length musical theater works acted and sung by singers who never actually did it on stage.

Just some random thoughts.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alice
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 09:36 PM

Ummmm, ...Don..
did you listen to Cry Me A River??
Or did you not see the link I posted.

Alice

Susan Boyle, Cry Me A River

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI2DxkrgpgQ

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 09:41 PM

May True Love find you Susan...And I won't peek when you get that first kiss...You have uplifted Spirits around the world...Bless...bob

p.s. I could see Kate Smith smiling in Heaven...

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alice
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 09:51 PM

Gawd, I just love her phrasing on Cry Me A River.
I can't stop listening to it.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 09:54 PM

Aha! The "Cry Me a River" performance, despite some technical flaws in the recording, shows Susan Boyle has a wonderful instrument and fine expression, as fit for blues as for musical theater--and whattaya think she could do with folk ballads?

Charles

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 10:03 PM

Cross-posted, Alice. Tied up at the moment, so I'll catch it shortly. Sounds good!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 10:06 PM

"...Don..
did you listen to Cry Me A River??
Or did you not see the link I posted."

Do note, Alice...Don's post was only 4 minutes after yours. He probably spent 15-20 min. writing it.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:09 PM

Don, don't impugn Ethel Merman! That woman had pipes like nobody's business! She is in my personal favorites list--a triumvirate of big gorgeous voices for popular song--Judy Garland, Ethel Merman, and Barbra Streisand. Actually, I think I need to recategorize to whatever term is grandiose for quartet, because I think Betty Buckley fits in there also.   

So far we've heard Susan sing two songs (good detective work, Alice!), a lament and a blues ballad. They're lovely. I will wait patiently to see what else she comes up with. It has taken this long for her to be discovered, now people need to give her a little wiggle room to work out some good arrangements and go from there.

SRS

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 11:41 PM

Watched it at least 7-8 times...with my eyes filled with tears.....BRAVO SUSAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 03:12 AM

I am crying a river after listening to song of same name. Think I am not going to be able to cope with seeing and hearing this Susan anymore.   

Makes me miss my Andie. She was a big girl (unlovely to some) with the kind of stage presence Susan boasts. One might think the voice is so startlingly good because of the surprise. One doesn't expect that power and skill from anyone who does not fit a prescribed physical aesthtic.

I know that Andie used to get sniggers and derision when she climbed the stage early in her high school years until she started singing. By end of sophomore (2nd) year the audience would shush each other when she came out.

There is just something in Susan (as was in Andie) that radiates love of what she doing and the desire to share it. In effect she makes love to the audience.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: andrewq
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 06:35 AM

So "unknown" Susan has previously made a record.... Just like "unknown" Paul Potts had actually appeared in several semi-pro productions and done workshops with Pavarotti.

As for there being no marketing involved, Alan, p-l-e-a-s-e. There were more editorial decisions to build the ecstatic hype in that few minutes of broadcast television than in the coming of the ObamaMessiah. The show is owned by Cowell. He has a history of short term promotion of unconventional looks for a quick buck (think Michelle McManus... Paul Potts... Susan Boyle...). The woman sang well. I wish her every success and hope she won't be spat out with the rest when her carefully stage-managed 15 minutes is up.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: MMario
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 08:40 AM

Oh please! There is a big difference between doing a limited edition charity recording and having a recording contract.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: MMario
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 08:46 AM

I mean to say - there are a large number of people who have never recorded anything else (though many have ) on the Mudcat CD's. If one of them hit it big would you say "Oh well - they recorded before - no big deal!" I doubt it!

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alan Day
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 08:48 AM

Andrew do you honestly think this was all stage managed.That Cowell organised a group of his men to go up to Scotland sit down with Susan and pre arrange it all. I admit from now on it will be all stage managed but before hand ? I would think the man has better things to do with his time.She has obviously sung in public before and was not the complete innocent we were led to believe,but you cannot stage manage a performance like she did. She is now a World Wide star,Cowell is a better man than I Gunga Din, if he could pull this one off by pre arrangement, or the expressions of amazement by the members of the panel.
He certainly would have organised Paul Potts teeth treatment before the show.
Al

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: jacqui.c
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 09:06 AM

It has been stated that Susan had performed locally prior to her performance on TV.

So far as having recorded before - that applies to quite a number of people who wouldn't even dream of making it as a professional singer. Susan said that it was her ambition to sing in front of a big audience, something that she had clearly not done up to that time. There are many of us around who have sung to small local group and even got a track onto a CD that had some sales. That, to me, does not take away from what this woman has or what she can achieve with that wonderful voice.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: jacqui.c
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 09:11 AM

BTW

I'm just listening to Cry Me A River. It must have had a very small circulation as I would hazard a guess that, if this had got to anyone who had any influence in these matters, this lady would have been picked up a lot earlier.

Just my opinion.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: beardedbruce
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 10:00 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041602419.html



"The Dream She Dreamed
Cheers for a Voice to Silence the Cynics

By Jeanne McManus
Friday, April 17, 2009

One of the engines that drive a cynical world in general and reality TV in particular is sparked by the friction between self-perception and fact. There's nothing quite like a stage and the hot spotlights of shows such as "American Idol" to make it clear to Everyman that his own measure of self-worth has just collided with a wall of three judges, and the results are messy blood sport for the viewing public.

Onto such a stage last weekend -- for the show "Britain's Got Talent" -- came Susan Boyle, and the setup was ripe. The solid-looking Scot in clumpy shoes and a dress the color of weak tea strode forward with the purposefulness of a woman who was going to dig a furrow for spring potatoes.

She had a streak of playfulness and shyness and a broad swath of uncowering dignity. And pride. She wanted to measure her talents against those of Elaine Paige, a British legend.

The eye-rolling public and the three jaded judges were waiting for her to squawk like a duck.

When I first saw the You Tube version of her performance of "I Dreamed a Dream," I kept looking for evidence of fraud in spite of the standing ovations of the live audience. From the first line of the first stanza, the confident yet angelic voice did not seem to match the workaday face and dark brows of the woman who was singing. It's a song about the loss of innocence and optimism. I hate the song. I hate "Les Misérables," the musical from which it comes. But I could not take my eyes off Susan Boyle, and I could not stop listening to her poised, pure notes, her perfect enunciation, her self-assured emotion. So I kept playing the song, and replaying it. I am usually front-row center in any audience of cynics, and I'm still not sick of it.

Sure, it would be nice if Boyle goes on to win the finals of this competition -- and even to meet the queen. But to me that's not the point. In a world that is sometimes rife with bloated résumés, stage mothers, fawning friends, self-adulation, narcissism and bedroom shelves holding too many meaningless trophies from middle school, here is a woman who took an accurate measure of her worth and put it to the test in the white-hot crucible of reality TV.


There's nothing wrong with pride. It's false pride that is the problem.

For now, the 47-year-old single woman has returned to Blackburn, her small village in Scotland, where I pray she can be preserved and defended from stylists, colorists, manicurists, eyebrow waxers, record producers, morning talk shows and other makeover mavens who will seek to dye her roots, define her waistline and steal her purity.

Which brings me to another point: Susan Boyle says she has never been kissed.

Men of Blackburn: What are you waiting for? "

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: NormanD
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 10:21 AM

I was attracted to this thread title because I once knew a young woman with the same name, and haven't seen her for 35+ years. She played a lap dulcimer she'd made herself and had a fine singing voice. Anyway, wrong woman.

My feelings rest with glueman over this. I wish her all the best, whatever it might mean for her. Call me what you will, but I'm not otherwise interested, nor in songs from "Les Mis", as popular as they are.

There was a good opinion piece in a UK newspaper y'day, which I've cut & pasted here, I think it makes some good points about the perception of beauty and attractiveness.


"It wasn't singer Susan Boyle who was ugly on Britain's Got Talent so much as our reaction to her"
Tanya Gold
          o The Guardian, Thursday 16 April 2009
         

"Is Susan Boyle ugly? Or are we? On Saturday night she stood on the stage in Britain's Got Talent; small and rather chubby, with a squashed face, unruly teeth and unkempt hair. She wore a gold lace dress, which made her look like a piece of pork sitting on a doily. Interviewed by Ant and Dec beforehand, she told them that she is unemployed, single, lives with a cat called Pebbles and has never been kissed. Susan then walked out to chatter, giggling, and a long and unpleasant wolf whistle.

Why are we so shocked when "ugly" women can do things, rather than sitting at home weeping and wishing they were somebody else? Men are allowed to be ugly and talented. Alan Sugar looks like a burst bag of flour. Gordon Ramsay has a dried-up riverbed for a face. Justin Lee Collins looks like Cousin It from The Addams Family. Graham Norton is a baboon in mascara. I could go on. But a woman has to have the bright, empty beauty of a toy - or get off the screen. We don't want to look at you. Except on the news, where you can weep because some awful personal tragedy has befallen you.

Simon Cowell, now buffed to the sheen of an ornamental pebble, asked this strange creature, this alien, how old she was. "I'm nearly 47," she said. Simon rolled his eyes until they threatened to roll out of his head, down the aisle and out into street. "But that's only one side of me," Susan added, and wiggled her hips. The camera cut to the other male judge, Piers Morgan, who winced. Didn't Susan know she was not supposed to be sexual? The audience's reaction was equally disgusting. They giggled with embarrassment, and when Susan said she wanted to be a professional singer, the camera spun to a young girl, who seemed to be at least half mascara.

She gave an "As if!" squeak and smirked. Amanda Holden, the female judge, a woman with improbably raised eyebrows and snail trails of Botox over her perfectly smooth face, chose neutrality. And then Susan sang. She stood with her feet apart, like a Scottish Edith Piaf, and very slowly began to sing Les Miserables' I Dreamed A Dream. It was wonderful.

The judges were astonished. They gasped, they gaped, they clapped. They looked almost ashamed. I was briefly worried that Simon might stab himself with a pencil, and mutter, "Et tu, Piers, for we have wronged Susan in thinking that because she is a munter, she is entirely useless." How could they have misjudged her, they gesticulated. But how could they not? No makeup? Bad teeth? Funny hair? Is she insane, this sad little Scottish spinster, beloved only of Pebbles the Cat?

When Susan had finished singing, and Piers had finished gasping, he said this. It was a comment of incredible spite. "When you stood there with that cheeky grin and said, 'I want to be like Elaine Paige', everyone was laughing at you. No one is laughing now." And it was over to Amanda Holden, a woman most notable for playing a psychotic hairdresser in the Manchester hair-extensions saga Cutting It. "I am so thrilled," said Amanda, "because I know that everybody was against you." "Everybody was against you," she said, as if Susan might have been hanged for her presumption. Why? Can't "ugly" people dream, you flat-packed, hair-ironed, over-plucked monstrous fool?

I know what you will say. You will say that Paul Potts, the fat opera singer with the equally squashed face who won Britain's Got Talent in 2007, had just as hard a time at his first audition. I looked it up on YouTube. He did not. "I wasn't expecting that," said Simon to Paul. "Neither was I," said Amanda. "You have an incredible voice," said Piers. And that was it. No laughter, or invitations to paranoia, or mocking wolf-whistles, or smirking, or derision.

We see this all the time in popular culture. Do you ever stare at the TV and wonder where the next generation of Judi Denchs and Juliet Stevensons have gone? Have they fallen down a Rada wormhole? Yes. They're not there, because they aren't pretty enough to get airtime. This lust for homogeneity in female beauty means that when someone who doesn't resemble a diagram in a plastic surgeon's office steps up to the microphone, people fall about and treat us to despicable sub-John Gielgud gestures of amazement.

Susan will probably win Britain's Got Talent. She will be the little munter that could sing, served up for the British public every Saturday night. Look! It's "ugly"! It sings! And I know that we think that this will make us better people. But Susan Boyle will be the freakish exception that makes the rule. By raising this Susan up, we will forgive ourselves for grinding every other Susan into the dust. It will be a very partial and poisoned redemption. Because Britain's Got Malice. Sing, Susan, sing - to an ugly crowd that doesn't deserve you."

Article here

Norman