This is what I said about Boyle when I first heard her music and her story:
It was just April of this year that the World was shocked to attention by Boyle's amazing voice and the Internet turbo charged her into stardom, taking what in the past I estimate would have been two years to occur and shortening it to just a few months. The first YouTube videos of Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's Got Talent were seen over 150 million times!
With all of her attention, it's hard to believe she didn't win that competition, and I still maintain Boyle should have quit BGT. But that all seems a distant memory now.
At any rate the American offers are starting to pop up for Boyle. Meanwhile, Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden said on Larry King Live on Tuesday of this week, that the show was not at fault for Boyle's problems stating that the contestants are all "extraordinarily well looked after."
Are you kidding me? Really, Amanda? So why did this happen if that's so? Moreover, I don't think Holden would have come on King's show were it not to do damage control regarding Boyle's horrible treatment. I still think she should have quit early and I said so here:
But maybe, as someone observed on Twitter, (where she's still a hot topic as of this post time) Boyle's coming in second place on BGT was the best thing to happen for her. Perhaps all of this will work out in a sideways fashion. But the big new issue is how people are treated on television. There should be a government review of what happens to new celebrities and what responsibilities TV producers should take, including explaining the risks that come with being on television to those who want to appear on a show, and protecting the persons from harm.
According to the website Entertainmentwise.com and the Daily Record, Boyle's brother Gerry said "Her dream is still very much alive. In fact, it's only just starting... She's been battered non-stop for the last seven weeks and it has taken its toll. But she'll be looking forward now to the Fourth of July."
It's fitting that the American President Obama would step in to clean up a British mess with the way Boyle, an overnight international superstar, was treated. Now, Boyle can get her rest, forget the zoo tour that the BGT minders have set for her, and sing for Obama.
Boyle expressed it was her dream to sing before the Queen of England, but now she'll get to croon before the most powerful person in the World.
That's just rewards for her, and punishment for the producers of Britain's Got Talent. Bravo, President Obama!
If you didn't know what happened to Boyle this week, here's my video as a recap:
Oh, and no, there's more news out there. Stick around...
After the news of Susan Boyle's admission to a mental clinic for evaluation, I just plain hit the ceiling. I'd followed the stories of Boyle's much-justified outbursts last week - "much-justified" because Boyle was reportedly deliberately harassed by a couple of evil journalists who set out to make her upset - and could not understand how the producers of the now-popular TV Show "Britain's Got Talent" (BGT) would not get protection for Boyle and shield her away from harm.
I then watched in horror as news outlets around the World put all the weight of the issue on her, writing she's "having a meltdown", "SuBo goes loco", or "flies off the handle all the time" or words to that effect, and figured that it was some elaborate PR stunt possibly developed by the BGT minders just to hype up the ratings as people tuned in to see what she would do at the final event, then cement the show's popularity because of the upset loss that was sure to occur since the call-in audience's vote would be effected by the news of her problems.
That's what happened. After the show, Boyle reportedly ran down a hallway screaming "I hate this show." Well I agree with Ms. Boyle 100 percent. The way BGT treated Boyle, and really how a portion of the World handled her, says nothing good about our Western culture and everything bad about how we've "evolved" in the 21st Century.
The more I see it, we're diving headlong into "Revelations" in the Bible, with a Tribulation (a period of persecution and of people who believe in God) and the Second Coming the only way to get us out of this spritual mess. I'm serious. We have some terrible people in our midst. People who would take advantage of a woman with a disability - Boyle has a learning disability - for their own gain, then toss her aside when they're done with her, or create the climate to do so, as BGT did.
Let's recap. First, Boyle enters the BGT competition and when she appears on stage, is made fun of by the audience and the judges. A terrible scene. Then she opens her mouth to sing and the same tormentors cheer her on. BGT and American Idol judge Simon Cowell is wowed. His collegue Piers Morgan takes Boyle on a date. Suddenly, the 47-year old woman still greaving from the loss of her mother in 2007 has reason to smile. After years of loneliness and emotional pain calmed by singing, Boyle's loved around the World for her singing. Boyle said "I'm not lonely anymore," and even had people she never met before flying in to visit her home in Scotland from as far away as Peru. Wild.
But then the dark side emerges. It comes in the form of what we in America call "haters": people who hate to see anyone other than themselves achieve a high level of success. People calling her "matronly", "frumpy", and a "spinster". Fueled by the hypermedia world created by Web 2.0, haters have something negative to say about almost everyone it seems and where they don't have something bad to say, they'll create a reason to say it. Enter the journalists. Stalking Boyle. Camping out at her home all day and night. Taking pictures of her and harassing her. And all the time BGT just lets this happen to her. Hey, as long as she's generating ratings for them, I guess they just don't care.
Boyle's brother Gerry was right, Boyle should have quit BGT while she was on top two weeks after her grand introduction. BGT would have been forced to bring her back, if only to save its ratings, which certainly would have tanked had she left. But Boyle stuck it out, and strangely on the week before what was predicted to be her contest-winning final performance, Boyle gets treated in a horrible way never reported before (I still don't know exactly what those two men who harrassed her said to her) and she responds in the way anyone new to massive celebrity would do: she got hopping mad and called the cops. That set in motion the negative PR campaign against her, and caused her loss.
Sorry, I think BGT has to answer for this; there's already an investigation of how Boyle was treated, and reportedly British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called to see how Boyle was doing. Good. And if I'm "Diversity", the talented dance group that scored the upset win in Britain's Got Talent, I'd want an answer too. That's no way to win a competition, and they should know it.
All We Need Is Love
Watching Boyle go through this is painful for me. It's a reminder of how much evil exists around us and that we can never stop confronting it. In the end, the Beatles song was right on: All We Need Is Love. I love to see people succeed. I love to see people reach their dreams. Celebrities, to me, are to be celebrated just for being in the spotlight they've so wanted to have for so long. Great! Seeing people smile - the grin of a child or of a middle-aged woman who never thought her talent would see the light of day - not cry, should be everyone's objective. That it's not is the measure of our ability to do bad, not good. If this is you, whereever you are, stop and change. Please.
Susan Boyle, who electrified audiences around the Internet world with her audition on the UK show "Britain's Got Talent" won the first of five finals rounds today, featuring 40 contestants who made "the cut" on Saturday.
This round featured Boyle, violinist Sue Son, the daring Darth Jackson (a combination of Michael Jackson and Darth Vader), young Natalie Okri , belly dancer Julia Naidenko, (who Telegraph.uk blogger Anna Pickard refered to as "Julia Havalottaconstanants", I'm serious), chainsaw artist Kevin James, and a dance duo called "Faces of Disco", as well as a 67-person dance group called "Diversity."
According to Pickard, who live-blogged tonight's event, Boyle sang at 9:33 PM in London and picked an Andrew Lloyd Webber song that Pickard described as "a musical that begins 'midnight ... doo doo dee doo doo evening'" which reads that it must be the song "Memory".
Pickard explains Boyle had a new hairdo and and "dyed and fitted" dress, but the best news to me is Simon Cowell apologized for the belittling way the judges addressed Boyle before she belted out her amazing rendition of "I Dream A Dream" from Les Miserable and shocked the World. If you didn't see Boyle's first performance, it's worth a review:
It's Not Over, Yet
The audience and judges picked Boyle, along with Diversity and over the performance of young Natalie Okri, who Pickard writes was "standing in the middle of a stage and silently weeping."
That gets eight of the final 40 out of the way. The BGT shows for the rest of the week feature the rest of the finalists. Who will win is still up in the air, with perfomers like Harmony and Shaheen Jafargholi yet to appear again.
Here's the full list of the 40 finalists:
Aidan Davis – Dancer Ben and Becky – Ballroom Dancers Brit Chix – Rock Band Callum Francis – Musical Theatre Darth Jackson – Michael Jackson/ Darth Vader Impersonator DCD Seniors – Dance Troupe Diversity – Street Dancers DJ Talent – Rapper Dream Bears – Comedy Dancers Fabia Cerra – Burlesque Dancer Faces of Disco – Comedy Dancers Flawless – Street Dancers Floral High Notes – Flower Arranging and Opera Singing Fred Bowers – Breakdancer Gareth Oliver – Comedy Impersonator Good Evans – Family Singing Group Greg Pritchard – Male Soprano Harmony – Musical Theatre Hollie Steel – Singer/ Dancer Hot Honeyz – Dancers Jackie Prescott and Tippy Toes – Dog Act Jamie Pugh – Singer Julia Naidenko – Belly Dancer Julian Smith – Saxophonist Kay Oresanya – The Living Saxophone Luke Clements – Juggler/ Street Performer Mama Trish – Drag Act Martin Machum – Guitarist MD Showgroup – Dancers Merlin Cadogan – Physical Performer Natalie Okri – Singer Nick Hell – Street Performer Shaheen Jafargholi – Singer Shaun Smith – Singer Stavros Flatly – Comedy Dancers Sue Son – Violinist Sugarfree – Street Dancers Susan Boyle – Singer The Barrow Boys – Wheelbarrow Dancing 2 Grand - Singers
Susan Boyle, who electrified audiences around the Internet world with her audition on the UK show "Britain's Got Talent" won the first of five finals rounds today, featuring 40 contestants who made "the cut" on Saturday.
This round featured Boyle, violinist Sue Son, the daring Darth Jackson (a combination of Michael Jackson and Darth Vader), young Natalie Okri , belly dancer Julia Naidenko, (who Telegraph.uk blogger Anna Pickard refered to as "Julia Havalottaconstanants", I'm serious), chainsaw artist Kevin James, and a dance duo called "Faces of Disco", as well as a 67-person dance group called "Diversity."
According to Pickard, who live-blogged tonight's event, Boyle sang at 9:33 PM in London and picked an Andrew Lloyd Webber song that Pickard described as "a musical that begins 'midnight ... doo doo dee doo doo evening'" which reads that it must be the song "Memory".
Pickard explains Boyle had a new hairdo and and "dyed and fitted" dress, but the best news to me is Simon Cowell apologized for the belittling way the judges addressed Boyle before she belted out her amazing rendition of "I Dream A Dream" from Les Miserable and shocked the World. If you didn't see Boyle's first performance, it's worth a review:
It's Not Over, Yet
The audience and judges picked Boyle, along with Diversity and over the performance of young Natalie Okri, who Pickard writes was "standing in the middle of a stage and silently weeping."
That gets eight of the final 40 out of the way. The BGT shows for the rest of the week feature the rest of the finalists. Who will win is still up in the air, with perfomers like Harmony and Shaheen Jafargholi yet to appear again.
Aidan Davis – Dancer
Ben and Becky – Ballroom Dancers
Brit Chix – Rock Band
Callum Francis – Musical Theatre
Darth Jackson – Michael Jackson/ Darth Vader Impersonator
DCD Seniors – Dance Troupe
Diversity – Street Dancers
DJ Talent – Rapper
Dream Bears – Comedy Dancers
Fabia Cerra – Burlesque Dancer
Faces of Disco – Comedy Dancers
Flawless – Street Dancers
Floral High Notes – Flower Arranging and Opera Singing
Fred Bowers – Breakdancer
Gareth Oliver – Comedy Impersonator
Good Evans – Family Singing Group
Greg Pritchard – Male Soprano
Harmony – Musical Theatre
Hollie Steel – Singer/ Dancer
Hot Honeyz – Dancers
Jackie Prescott and Tippy Toes – Dog Act
Jamie Pugh – Singer
Julia Naidenko – Belly Dancer
Julian Smith – Saxophonist
Kay Oresanya – The Living Saxophone
Luke Clements – Juggler/ Street Performer
Mama Trish – Drag Act
Martin Machum – Guitarist
MD Showgroup – Dancers
Merlin Cadogan – Physical Performer
Natalie Okri – Singer
Nick Hell – Street Performer
Shaheen Jafargholi – Singer
Shaun Smith – Singer
Stavros Flatly – Comedy Dancers
Sue Son – Violinist
Sugarfree – Street Dancers
Susan Boyle – Singer
The Barrow Boys – Wheelbarrow Dancing
2 Grand - Singers
The Worldwide sensation Susan Boyle, who was discovered to rave reviews on the show Britains' Got Talent is now faced with her second "big challenger" in as many weeks on the show, 10-year-old Hollie Steel and a process that threatens to dampen Boyle's chance for real success. The small girl from Britain wowed the crowd last Saturday on yet another show.
Steel makes the second talent to emerge as a possible challenge to Boyle for the winner of the competition in as many weeks, as we were introduced to 12-year-old Shaheen Jafargholi just the weekend before, and calls into question the ability of Boyle to maintain the high level frenzy that catapulted her to stardome. What I fear is that as BGT rolls out new challengers, Boyle's ability to capture a high dollar record deal will be impacted. The only solution for Boyle is to drop out of Britains' Got Talent, and sign a record deal before the end of May.
Why the end of May? It's simple.
Because to date this entire affair has been engineered by the producers of BGT, who taped the show in January and are engineering the release of auditions and information on all of the talent that appeared, including Susan Boyle. With each passing week that a new talent is trotted out, two things happen: 1) the appetite people have to see her online lessens, and 2) the new talent draws the attention of the people who were hungry for more of Susan's voice, but weren't getting it.
By quiting BGT, Boyle takes the PR control away from that show's producers and puts it into her lap. She can take advantage of this by recording one or who "teaser" songs and putting them on YouTube and other video distribution channels, and working on a record deal that will fetch more money now that one two months from now.
I think Ms. Boyle's brother is right on. Susan Boyle, while you're out on that date with BGT Judge Piers Morgan, talk to him about getting you out of BGT (after all, he just said you would not win it) and into a record deal so we can hear more of you before it's too late and the system eats what it created.
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:
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.
The now wildly famous Scottish Singer Susan Boyle, who wowed the World with her singing audition on "Britains' Got Talent" one week ago today (how time flies) and who's background was featured on my video called "Just Who Is The Singer Susan Boyle?", said she sang many times in the past.
Well, one of those occasions was the basis for a CD made in 1999 and recently found by The Daily Record in the UK, and is now taking YouTube by storm.
It's no wonder. You've just got to hear her sing "Cry Me A River". Seriously.
Ms. Boyle's amazing talent has been a part of her for a long time, just waiting to be discovered. Now it's happened. But to put in perspective regarding what emotions seem to drive her, Ms. Boyle's father passed in 1997, just two years before this, so I wonder if he was in her thoughts when she produced this amazing recording. I write that because Boyle said recently -- on CNN's "Larry King" -- that what she sings fits the mood of the moment.
You can't please everyone, especially conservatives.
What's interesting regarding the outcome of my Susan Boyle video-blog of two days ago is the reaction I received from some viewers toward what I considered to be a throw-away line at best. I was trying to state that in a news World where we hear about "nasty pirates, mean internet commentators, and crazy right-wing extremists it's great to have some good news in the form of Susan Boyle's performance and story.
My blog post was clear as a bell, but I discovered you can't combat the insecurities of the reader; they're going to think what they want to think depending on their background and beliefs. It's literally impossible to anticipate every reaction to what's written, so better to just go for it.
As I state in the video, about 15 percent of the commenters focused on the "crazy right-wing extremists" part of the sentence and came up with some really weird interpretations. One person used the term "bigoted" to describe what they thought of my comment. In point of fact, being a "crazy right-wing extremist" is a behavior and not a race or ethnicity. For some to "go there", as the term is used, was pretty gauche to say the least.
I can't spot a "crazy right-wing extremist" on the street at a distance, and I certainly don't know what "crazy right-wing extremists" wear to a concert. But what I do know is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released a report that points to "right-wing extremists" as a threat to the safety of the country. Moreover they're reportedly growing in numbers. Remember, Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVey was a member of a "crazy right-wing extremists" or "White supremacist" group, so the FBI and Homeland Security have reasons to fear what these organizations might do.
Why support them, then?
And why be so sensitive to the use of the term "crazy right-wing extremists" that one would think I'm referring to a person who's "right wing" and calling that normal person names like "crazy" when I never made such a claim? It should come without explanation that one is who "right wing" is normal. But maybe right-wingers are hyper-sensitive now?
What's the deal with that?
Whatever it is, it is crazy to me. The people who reacted to my statement on "crazy right-wing extremists" need to stop looking for fights where they don't exist and cease acting like, well, "crazy right-wing extremists"! When reading, they should give someone the benefit of the doubt and stop looking for negatives to point to. Then they can see the real story.
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.
