Susan Boyle

by John McShane

  The article noted that Susan had lived at home with her parents all her life and she also revealed she wanted to win the contest as a tribute to Bridget. Susan said, ‘When I lost my mother I decided I wanted to do Britain’s Got Talent for her. She was a wonderful lady – one in a million. I have four brothers and four sisters, although two have passed away, and I know they are going to back me all the way. I have been truly blessed with the family I have.’

  She continued, ‘At the audition I think they thought I wouldn’t be good, but when I started singing the audience all got on their feet, it was fantastic. I’ve just been amazed by the whole thing. I’ve really enjoyed it so far. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.

  ‘I’d like to go all the way. I’m doing it for Blackburn, West Lothian and the whole of Scotland.’ And in a comment that looked as though it was slightly more manufactured than impromptu, she added, ‘Hopefully I can show Scotland’s got talent!’

  Speaking to a local newspaper she also said one of the things that had driven her on was the success of a singing plumber Andrew Muir, also from West Lothian, on an earlier Britain’s Got Talent.

  ‘Andrew Muir was fantastic last year and somebody local going on a show like that definitely inspired me to go on. I like Elaine Paige as an artist and try to model myself on her, but it’s all just for fun. I love singing. It keeps me going. It’s quite an accolade what Simon Cowell said and I didn’t really know what to expect. I just went and sang. It would be a dream to have a career in singing and to be on the Royal Variety Performance. I’m very pro-Royal. I’m looking forward to watching the show, although I’ll probably be critical of any mistakes I see, but I’ll take it all in good fun. It’s only entertainment after all.’

  Muir returned the compliment when he said, ‘I’ve known Susan for quite a while and sang with her a few times at charity gigs and local talent shows in West Lothian. She’s quite a character and is a really nice woman. I wish her all the best and would tell her to just go for it. There must be something in the water in West Lothian.’

  The Sun newspaper even carried an editorial extolling her virtues: ‘Susan Boyle will touch a nation’s heart tonight when she sings on Britain’s Got Talent. Her amazing voice brings the audition audience to its feet in a scene even more breathtaking than the discovery of Paul Potts. It is a feel-good story to warm the hardest of hearts.

  ‘In these days of rampant consumerism, it is refreshing to find someone so happy with their lot. Susan has never had a boyfriend but says she couldn’t have hoped for a better family life. And, as she says, you should never judge a book by its cover.’

  If there was something in the West Lothian water that Andrew Muir mentioned, perhaps it would have been a good idea to bottle it and send it around the country. It is a fact worth remembering that at the time Susan was about to explode into the nation’s consciousness, people in Britain really were in need of something to lift their spirits. Even Simon Cowell, a man who seemed to be on an ever-increasing spiral of success, had picked up on it.

  ‘I truly believe this is absolutely the right time to air the show,’ he explained. ‘When we filmed the auditions back in January and February, things were very bad in the UK and all doom and gloom, and I did genuinely think, “Should we be doing this?” But then the reactions from the audience proved that we were right to go ahead. They were laughing and screaming and loving it. The atmosphere was great and I thought “Yes. This is exactly what we need.” People need an escape and this is what I’m providing – an excuse to laugh and forget your problems.’

  He added, ‘If I thought Britain was broken then I wouldn’t do this show. Don’t write us off. I believe Britain has talent. It’s feel-good, positive stuff. I know young people are often the victims of negative press. But even in the first show you’ll see talented lads called Flawless who rehearse every day to be the best dancers they can be. They’re not on streets causing trouble. This is what the show’s about. It gives youngsters a chance to show what they can do.

  ‘If you take all the reality talent shows there have been around the world in the past ten years, hand on heart, I think only three big international stars have emerged. They are Paul Potts from Britain’s Got Talent, Kelly Clarkson from American Idol and Leona Lewis from The X Factor. All mine – and I am enormously proud of this fact.’

  He went on to explain that the prize wasn’t just performing in front of the Queen at the Royal Variety Show. ‘The winner is likely to make between £250,000 and £500,000 in the first year. And who knows what will happen after that? We change people’s lives.’

  Throughout January and February Cowell and his cojudges sat and watched 450 acts at Manchester, Glasgow – when Susan had been one of 40 auditioning – Birmingham, London and Cardiff. In the past, winners of BGT and the The X Factor had had their lives turned around by the success the programmes had bought them, so Cowell was, of course, right when he said the show ‘changed people’s lives’.

  But no one’s life had been changed to the extent that Susan Boyle was about to experience.

  Those early newspaper stories had put across the initial message that there was going to be an act with a difference on the show. But they could not even begin to illustrate the impact that the transmission of the show would shortly have.

  There truly had never been anyone like Susan Boyle before…nor anything like the ‘SuBo Mania’ that was to come.

  CHAPTER THREE

  A STAR IS BORN

  The millions who watched Britain’s Got Talent that evening were in on the birth of one of – if not ‘the’ – most unlikely showbiz superstars of all time.

  Many of them would have read in the newspapers in the preceding 48 hours about Susan, but nothing could really have prepared them for what they were to see.

  To coin an old phrase, ‘You had to be there’. Or its modern equivalent in the age of television, ‘Did you see that?’ Millions did that night – and many millions more were to watch enthralled in the weeks and months to come.

  It began with a backstage shot of Susan munching on a salad sandwich and her voiceover saying, ‘My name is Susan Boyle, nearly 48, currently unemployed but still looking and I’m going to sing for you on Britain’s Got Talent today.’ Then she was greeted by Ant and Dec.

  Presenter Anthony McPartlin (Ant) asked ‘Are you a bit nervous?’ Susan replied, ‘Yeah, sure I am. I am in a fighting mood you know.’ She also said to the camera, ‘At the moment I live alone with my cat called Pebbles. Never been married, never been kissed. Shame, but that’s not an advert.’ Even as she said it she pulled a face of mock self-pity and giggled. Susan, who said she had been singing since she was 12, continued, ‘I’ve always wanted to perform in front of a large audience. I’m gonna make that audience rock.’

  We have touched earlier on the reaction she received when she walked onto the stage, and on her inquisition by Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan, complete with barely-hidden looks of disbelief and apprehension on their part. Amanda Holden kept quiet, looking on in trepidation as Susan announced her choice of song, ‘I Dreamed A Dream.’

  And then came the song. And the cheers. And the raised eyebrows, open mouths, smiles of disbelief on the part of the panel and audience alike. Ant looked at the off-stage camera and said, ‘You’se didn’t expect that, did you?’ Declan Donnelly winked knowingly. Morgan and Holden stood on their feet to applaud, as did the crowd.

  As Susan reached the highest note of ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, Dec shouted ‘Wow!’ as Ant said ‘Look at that!’

  Blowing kisses to the panel and the audience she walked off to a crescendo of cheers and whistles, this time of approval rather than derision, and had to be called back by the judges to hear their verdicts.

  Piers Morgan was the first to speak. ‘Without a doubt that is the biggest surprise I’ve had in three years of this show. 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. That was
stunning, an incredible performance. Amazing. I’m reeling from shock, I don’t know about you two.’

  Amanda Holden added, turning to the audience at one stage as she spoke, ‘I’m thrilled because everybody was against you. I honestly think we were all being very cynical and that’s the biggest wake-up call ever. And I just want to say it was a complete privilege listening to that. It was brilliant.’

  Simon Cowell had a slightly different take on her performance: ‘Susan,’ he said, ‘I knew the minute you walked out on stage that we were going to hear something extraordinary, and I was right.’ Morgan and Holden laughed at his response; off-stage Dec said laughingly, ‘What a load of tosh!’

  Cowell continued: ‘Susan, you are a little tiger aren’t you?’ Turning to his fellow judges, he said, ‘Okay, moment of truth – yes or no?’

  Piers Morgan responded with ‘The biggest yes I have ever given anybody.’ Holden agreed and Cowell, smilingly, said, ‘Susan Boyle, you can go back to the village with your head held high, it’s three yeses.’

  As she left the stage, Ant and Dec took hold of her hands. Ant said, ‘I think you enjoyed that just a little?’ and Susan gasped, ‘Didn’a half!’

  Ant, as he was obliged to, then asked the obvious question – ‘How do you feel?’ Like a shot, the answer came back from an excited Susan: ‘Bloody fantastic.’

  Millions of television viewers at home had gone through the same feelings as the audience in Glasgow: the embarrassment, the sniggering, the ‘Oh my God what does she look like?’ moments. And they too had been stunned when Susan began to sing. The purity, the clarity, the sheer melodious pleasure that her voice gave, all were condensed into the brief time it took her to sing ‘I Dreamed A Dream’. The happiness that had emanated from her, and the audience, was mirrored and then magnified by the general public. We will return later to the impact that broadcast had and the uncontrollable surge of admiration once her performance travelled across the world. It would an understatement to merely say that the effect of her performance snowballed, because this particular snowball was very shortly travelling at the speed of light. Immediately, her praises were being sung by all and sundry.

  Even battle-hardened television critics were applauding.

  The veteran writer and former showbiz boss Kevin O’Sullivan wrote in the Sunday Mirror: “‘Never been married – never been kissed,” reveals 48-year-old Susan Boyle, to no one’s great surprise. I don’t mean to be unkind… but it’s safe to say that this homely Scottish spinster with striking eyebrows isn’t going to win any beauty contests. And my guess is she didn’t fly to Milan to buy that outfit. Cue the comedy music, cut to the audience giggling contemptuously… and prepare to laugh at another delusional loser.

  ‘Welcome to Britain’s Got Talent 2009 – where it looks as though the unfortunate Ms Boyle is about to experience a bucketful of ritual humiliation. But wait. Suddenly she’s singing the Les Misérables classic ‘I Dreamed a Dream’. And – oh my God – super Su has the voice of an Easter angel. Beautiful! It’s a Paul Potts moment.’

  The News of the World’s take-no-prisoners reviewer Ian Hyland said: ‘No one could deny unemployed spinster Susan Boyle her moment in the sun. She may well look like the product of a drunken night involving Eddie Large and Liam Gallagher’s mum but, man, can Susan belt out a show tune.’

  And the Daily Star’s Garry Bushell echoed their views when he said: ‘A wonderful show, full of fraught egos, eccentrics, bewildered amateurs and demented fools. And as well as the judges, BGT also delivers laughs, surprises and flashes of raw talent. Flawless, a North London dance troupe, were mesmerising. Scot Susan Boyle looked like a bag-lady dressed by Archie Mitchell, but she had a voice as sweet as a honey-bear’s tooth.’

  The cat was well and truly out of the West Lothian bag by now.

  Soon Susan was swamped with interview requests from the British media, and gradually, piece-by-piece, her story – so ordinary on the one hand, extraordinary on the other – emerged from comments she, and those who knew her in Bathgate, were making. A comment here, a remark there, a touch of solemnity on one hand, a small joke on the other; they all formed parts of this emerging picture.

  From those interviews a picture began to emerge. A picture of a woman with, to coin the modern phrase, a back-story. She was someone who was to touch millions with her struggle and the hardships she had had to bear en route to that moment of glory. Her story was to be, in a sense, mundane and uneventful. Perhaps that was one of the core reasons for the success that awaited her: there were millions out there like her who too had ‘never been kissed’ – never kissed by the better things in life, that is, but just hoped that one day they too would be recognised as being special in one way or another.

  ‘I’ve never had a boyfriend. I’ve never even been kissed,’ she said, repeating that infectious aside she had given Ant and Dec.

  ‘My mother was taken ill and I was needed back at home to nurse her. My music had to take second place to that so I stopped my studies. I wanted to make her proud. I wasn’t working so we scraped by on mum’s pension and my benefits. It was a sad time, but I was happy at home. My parents always thought it was better I lived with them so they could keep me safe.

  ‘My mum and dad didn’t want me to have boyfriends because they were worried they would try and take advantage of me. Time went on and I just accepted it was never going to happen. It’s true I’ve never been kissed. If someone even pecked me on the cheek it would be nice, but I’ve never even got that close.

  ‘I’ve had crushes but never been in love. I suppose I’ve accepted it’s never going to happen. The only thing I regret is not having children. I love kids and I would have liked to have been a mum. I’ve always lived at home and I still live there now. I’ve got the same room I had as a little girl. I am very patient,’ she said. ‘Circum stances can sometimes interrupt what plans you have in your life and you just have to be mature and accept that and wait for something else to come along.

  ‘Mum loved Britain’s Got Talent and used to tell me I should put my name down and that I’d win it if I did. But I never thought I was good enough. It was only after she died two years ago that I plucked up the courage to enter. It was a very dark time and I suffered from depression and anxiety. But out of the darkness came light. I realised I wanted to make her proud of me and the only way to do that was to take the risk and enter the show.’

  And of her school days, when she was bullied, ‘The teachers realised I had a voice and gave me singing parts in plays. It was the one place where I was accepted. It was a nice feeling. I still see the kids I went to school with because we all live in the same area. They’re all grown up with children of their own. But look at me now. I’ve got the last laugh.’

  She used to practise her singing all over the house. ‘I love to belt out tunes in the shower because the sound is so good in the bathroom and I’ve got a piano in the front room to sing with. I used to have a singing teacher and piano lessons once a week, but I had to stop as I couldn’t afford it.’

  Susan recalled how her mother’s death even made her stop singing in the church choir and the karaoke clubs and how she got back into it. ‘When I heard about the auditions for Britain’s Got Talent I decided to get back into singing and start enjoying life again. I wasn’t sure how my voice would sound after so long, but the reception I got from the audience and the judges was fantastic.

  ‘I know I’m an older woman, but I would never have had the confidence to do something like this when I was younger. I’ve definitely improved and got more confident as I’ve got older.’

  She even managed to utter a remark so self-effacing it practically defies belief. ‘I have been long-term unemployed and it is very difficult to find work, especially during a recession. I do voluntary work in the community to get out of the house and keep active, but hopefully this experience will help me find something. I’ve got bills to pay and a house to keep.

  ‘I would like to have a career as a sing
er but I am just taking small steps at the moment. I have had great support from people in the village and family, they have just told me to go for it. Obviously, I am not used to all the attention, but I am coping quite well.’

  Just read that again. She had no idea what was coming.

  Perhaps one of the most remarkable aspects of Susan’s rise to fame is its global nature. It would be hard to find anyone so homespun, so thoroughly Scots, so ultra-ordinary British. Yet her appeal was to be universal. By 14 April – Day 3 of ‘The Rest of Her Life’ – she was being interviewed on ABC television news in America.

  Hard on the heels of their reports on the economy and Somali pirates, the award-wining, and prestigious programme, proudly trailed their interview with Susan.

  Their experienced anchorman Charles Gibson, more used to presiding over Presidential Debates, introduced her thus: ‘Finally tonight, a star is born. A most unlikely star. In the world of reality TV, the young and the good looking tend to rule. So, the other night when a not especially young, and with all due respect, rather dowdy lady walked on stage for Britain’s biggest TV talent show, the reaction was harsh. And then, well, hear for yourself. Here’s David Muir.’

  There then followed an interview between Muir, another household name to millions of Americans, and Susan. Muir intoned, ‘Her name is Susan Boyle. A middle-aged church volunteer from a Scottish village.’ Footage of her being interviewed featured some of her now famous remarks.

  ‘At the moment I live alone with my cat called Pebbles. I’ve never been married. Never been kissed. Shame.’ This was followed by some clips of the audition overlaid with Muir’s comments. ‘The crowd, the judges, 11 million viewers, stunned.’