Susan Boyle v. Shaheen Jafargholi With Simon Cowell's Help

 

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Susan Boyle, who wowed the World with her performance on Britains' Got Talent over a week ago, is now the target of some news outlets who want to diminish her fame to make room for someone else.

In this case, the media outlet CNN is doing the work of advancing the name of Shaheen Jafargholi, a 12-year-old "Welsh boy" as he's described by CNN.com. I checked his performance on YouTube and this video sums up what I saw:



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Now, unlike Susan Boyle, Simon Cowell, one of the judges on Britain's Got Talent (and who recently announced he may leave American Idol) seemed prejudiced toward Jafargholi (photo below), even to the point of ordering a change to a song that better fits his voice.

Jafargholi starts by singing "Valerie" (which has been performed by Amy Winehouse), but then Cowell stops the effort saying "You've got this really wrong," and so Jafargholi sings "Who's Loving You", written by Smokey Robinson and peformed by Michael Jackson when he was but a kid with the Jackson Five!

I have a massive problem with that action by Cowell because it creates an uneven playing field for Susan Boyle. No one helped Ms. Boyle at all - not that she needed it -- so why help someone else?

Am I the only one who has a problem with this?

I feel sorry for Susan Boyle because, look, talented Shaheen is but he's 12 and has a life ahead of him. Susan Boyle is 48, extremely talented, and just getting noticed when it should have happened 10 years ago.

I can't help but wonder if all of this was staged. It seems too perfect an arrangement and logical in it's development.

It makes sense that Cowell would be the one to engineer a great outcome (if he did) for a young teen with talent, and why Cowell would make a scoffing expression toward Boyle -- the kid is "cute" and marketable; Boyle is far outside the "box" Cowell's used to and thus threatening to the standard rules of the entertainment game.

Get over it Simon, Boyle's better.

Zennie62 On Susan Boyle Fan Site

 

A friend sent an email that my video "Who Is Susan Boyle" is featured on a new Susan Boyle fan site. Here it is > Susan Boyle Fan Site.

And on the matter of "Crazy Right-Wing Extremists, here's my video response:

Susan Boyle: Just Who Is The Singer Susan Boyle?

 

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Unless you live under a rock, you know about the Scottish woman who has taken the industrialized World by storm: Susan Boyle.

Ms. Boyle, who appeared on a reality TV show called "Britains' Got Talent" last Saturday, April 11th and wowed a cynical audience and the judges, including the irascible Simon Cowell (also of American Idol) with her powerful performance of "I Dream A Dream" from Les Miserable.

What surprised millions - and does not make a great statement about our World industrial culture but is a great example of the power of online video distribution as the video has been seen over 15.9 million times on YouTube (I counted over 10 videso with over 200,000 views) as of this writing - is that someone who looks like her could sing like that.



But who Susan Boyle is as a person is a story of a good simple woman winning over a bad, complicated society. Ms. Boyle is 48 years old, unemployed, and she says never married or "kissed" which means she's a virgin. I do not laugh here because I think of her more as pure rather than question anyone's desire for her or perceived lack of same.

The Worldwide sensation lives in her childhood home in West Lothian, one of 32 council areas in Scotland, and which has Grapevine, Texas as its sister city, meaning they can claim her too.

Ms. Boyle cared for her mother until the elder Boyle's passing in 2007 at the age of 91; her father passed away 10 years before. Living alone, Susan attends Church each weekend and it was there that her singing talent developed, and where her late mother encouraged her to sing, but Boyle had reportedly stopped singing and did not know how she would do on that Saturday night she shocked the World.

Susan's life has not been one without pain. She was abused and starved of oxygen at birth as a result of that and has a learning disability because of the act. Ms. Boyle says she was teased by classmates, and apparently the scars of their comments remain to this day. Very sad.

What I identify with is, I myself having lost two fathers to prostate cancer in 2005 (my stepfather and my biological dad), and the same year my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer (she's still with me), one becomes painfully aware of their own mortality and the desire to "make one's mark" becomes ever intense. Susan Boyle's stirring song was as much a testimate to the power of the human sprit and a form of grieving as it was a display of talent. Susan wanted to make her mom smile, but in doing so made mothers all over the World smile -- my Mom called and said Boyle was the next Julie Andrews.

So, in a World of nasty pirates, mean internet commenters, and crazy right-wing extremists, we have to stop and embrace Susan Boyle for making us smile.

Simon Cowell Leaving "American Idol"? YEAH!

 

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I just read the news that Simon Cowell, the British entertainment mogul who's terrible bedside temper brings an edge to the popular reality TV show "American Idol" is now considering leaving it. My reaction? YEAH! DO IT!

Look, I never really watched American Idol at all -- but I've seen at least once -- and the reason was Cowell. I've got to be honest. I don't like it when people are mean to each other when they're supposed to work together in the real world, and I like it even less on reality TV. Cowell tossed insults at fearful contestants like they're hand grenades then he sits back and watches them cry!

Maybe Cowell is the perfect poster child for our fashionably rude society, and if that's the case and his departure would help improve American Culture, then the faster the better.

Cowell says he's tired; that going between two countries and doing three shows is hard "so one had to go" he told the British press. All I can say is please let it be "Idol" so he's not on in the American states for a while.

(And after unknown Susan Boyle's beautiful, blow-you-away rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables on "Britains Got Talent", I'm willing to be he's not skipping out on that show.)

Cowell's departure is good for Idol. Even Ryan Seacrest says this, pointing out the ratings drop I referred to earlier. But even then American Idol still rules the ratings its time slot. Maybe Americans like a villian, and Cowell is that. He told Seacrest to "Come out of the closet" and has been called childish, insulting, and a ton of names I can print here.

So who would replace Cowell? Well, someone mean, childish, ambitious, and cold for starters. For fun, let's make a list. Here's mine:

1. Dick Cheney for throwing President Obama under the bus, or trying to.

2. Sarah Palin for throwing everyone under the bus she's worked with.

3. Jamie Foxx for telling 16-year old Mylie Cyrus to make a sex tape and use heroin.

4. Rush Limbaugh for everything.

5. Chelsea Handler for having a cheap, racist TV show.

6. Alec Baldwin for yelling at his young daughter.

7. Jim Cramer, who I like but can wreck a company's stock in moments.

8. Naomi Campbell for throwing her cell phone at an employee.

9. J.J. Abrams for messing-up the San Francisco Skyline in "Star Trek" '

10. Perez Hilton who tosses made-up Internet rumors around weekly.

I'm sure you have your own list. Let's see it! Make a video of your "Top 10." I left "me" out because I didn't use the term "ego". I have a large one.