The Untold Susan Boyle Story

Ok, by now you've heard the story of Susan Boyle, the British churchlady/spinster who wowed the crowd at Britian's Got Talent. If you haven't - then take a minute and look at the clip to understand the pure power of what an unexpected talent can do.

But the Susan Boyle story has a lot more going on than just the music phenomenon, thought that's interesting to be sure.

Take, for example, the story of Paul Wood.

Paul Wood is a construction worker in London, who's got the bug for building video networks on the web in his spare time.

So on Saturday night in London last week Wood decided on a lark that this Susan Boyle woman he read about might 'take off' when Britain's Got Talent would be broadcast. He'd seen her in the auditions and decided to take a risk. He bought the URL Susan-Boyle.com and Sunday night - moments after the broadcast - he had a fan site for her up online.

What Wood didn't know and couldn't know was that some how Susan Boyle connected with a wide variety of people in a deep and powerful way. Why is that? First, you need to see the clip to understand. We can spend a sec and try and psycho-analyze the public: For some, the music is what it's all about. For others, it's the ugly duckling who spreads her wings. And then, it may just be given the economy, with people feeling so beaten up, that watching an underdog totally triumph was just too hard to resist.

It hardly matters. She totally owned the gig - and now she's a rocket. And the best part? This isn't some contrived media event from the pop-culture factory. This is real.

Susan-Boyle.com has created a pop-up destination where people can connect, share stories, record videos, and watch Susan Boyle's video experience. It is a feel good site with most comments gushing with enthusiasm and support. There is something that feels good about watching a community grow organically around such a positive media moment and personality. We just don't have enough of this stuff these days.

Four days later he has a website that is getting close to a million page views a day and has over 12,000 registered members.

The Wall Street Journal reports here that the site's fast growing traffic is the #1 site for Susan-Boyle fans worldwide, providing a unique mix of network clips, user-submitted video testimonials, and a live twitter stream of Susan Boyle fans that updates round the clock from a fast growing worldwide fan base.

It is also worth pointing out, that only in the technologically adept world we live in could such an event be possible. Millions of people flocking to a virtual destination and forming a "flash mob" style community - never meeting each other, but finding a real outlet to come together and share in the moment. Who says technology is making us numb to personal interaction?

My Thoughts about Susan Boyle

In-Response-to-Susan-Boyles

Susan-Boyle-I-am-dreaming-a-pea

Here are just a few of the more than 4,000 comments posted to the site:

top gear dave said:
"I am a married man of 46 with three kids not normally given to moments of emotional outburts but while watching this delightful lady performing tears streamed down my face. It was definitely a moment when the meek inherited the earth."

bookwoman said:
Hope as well as talent beam from this video and this woman. And oh, we need both so much. We should be ashamed of the cynicism most of us wallow in, expecting talent only from glitzy packages. I am thrill, touched and grateful for Susan Boyle. God Bless her!

U.S.A. fan said:
I love her. She represents all the underdogs of the world. She is wonderful.

Dr. Bob said:
Thanks,Susan... for ringing the bell of believeability for those like yourself who keep on believeing in their dreams. i am happy for you and for your success. God loves you and so do I.

torchman25 said:
susan boyle, thank you for sharing your beautiful voice to the bankrupt state of california. thank God for the internet!

Cheron said:
It's 2am here in Saskatoon Canada and I happened upon this video....feelin g all down and freaken sad because its my 59th birthday this day I heard Susan Boyles audition and I smiled the hugest smile....life has hope again because one lady out of nowhere had a dream come true!!

If you haven't had enough, go visit the site and watch a couple videos, hang out with other unlikely fans and witness a neat moment in media history.

Comments

[Preston Fairchild]

I was busy with the end of semester papers and assignments and kept hearing of this Susan Boyle. I decided to find out who she was and came across her performance from Britains Got Talent on YouTube. I am embarassed to admit how emotional I became from watching this magnificient woman with her angelic voice. I immediately knew this is what America needs to see, a person who does not neccesarily fit stereotypes of popular performers, but an every day average person who has not been given a chance and did not let go of her dream. I say never let anything come in the way of your dreams and never let anyone tell you that your dreams are too big.

[amazing helen]

Now that we have asserted that less than attractive could crack the spell. THen surely must
agree that a 70 retired chef who spent years in dozens of kitchens in California then wrote a book
called "Savvy KItchen Solutions" with lots of common care of thekitchen and appliance functions.
Certainly would be a huge help to young makers just starting out.. I think we have excess recipes
and young chefs selling books that selling around $35.
I think it is time for the culinary world for old timers getting the kitchen shows! Like Boyle we got
very knowledgable senior veterans of the kitchen... Ray isn't there becuase she is so smart about
culinary affairs...YOUNG and has a cute giggle.
I say its time to break through the FORMICA CEILING... HOw will be the first for a mature chef
on their networks.

[GrooveGrl4]

Spinster? Do people really still use that word?!

[triplbee]

Kind of pathetic that the author's cynicism causes him to miss the entire point of this woman's stardom.

[ifyouwillit]

i totally agree. she is a 'rocket' and she is rocketing towards stardom based on what the world thinks not necessarily what the press thinks....but be aware...the press has a hand in it too. thinking that the press doesn't would be a mistake. i hope everyone continues to enjoy her performanc­es...-bigf­an http://www.whoissusanboyle.com/

[Epiphany2b]

There have been dozens of similar clips of people performing on this show in addition to Susan and Paul. Several very young amazing children, I clearly recall, as well as the girl with who did a dance with her dog. Are they all contrived and set up as you all are assuming this one was? You suppose they announced to the audience "When Susan Boyle comes on stage we want you to all get a really skeptical look on your face, followed by one of wonder when she begins to sing."? And do these three judges listen to and prepare all the contestants for their performances? This supposedly was only a preliminary qualifying round. I am one of the most untrusting people around, so I get it -- but I think cynicism is becoming so much a part of the human psyche that we'd probably be suspicious of a mother's motives when she expresses love for her child.

[moonflowerjewelry]

i still can't get over the cynicism regarding her story - surely the possibility that the judges were acting, that is one thing. but all 3k members in the audience were not. the part that is not manufactured is the person, humble, unemployed, loving daughter, karaoke singing, never been kissed woman.

[PlayTOE]

And the best part? This isn't some contrived media event from the pop-culture factory. This is real.

Actually, the story is worthy of a master media manipulator. And in the middle of it is a promoter who is one of those few individuals who is sharp enough to set this sort of thing up, Simon.

Take nothing away from Susan, she delivered an outstanding performance, but the set up by Simon is far too good to be believable as an accident.

[Duane Price]

I totally agree. They knew exactly what was going to happen, that she was going to be great, and they manufactured the faux surprise for ratings. Not that she wasn't great, she was.

[BartLA]

Yes, even though Simon and the other producers fashioned the final product for the television viewers, it's still amazing that it has taken off to be the phenomena it has. I have a feeling they didn't quite expect how Susan would truly inspire as she has on such a large large scale. And if she wasn't the real thing, she wouldn't touch people as she does. However they set the stage for her, I am glad she is reaping the rewards and glad that she is inspiring others as well.

[Ryan Baillargeon]

How bad are things when this statement:
"And the best part? This isn't some contrived media event from the pop-culture factory. This is real."
is the intended result of a contrived media event from the pop-culture factory.

The fact that people are surprised you don't have to be from the cast of the Hills or High School Musical to have talent is farcical.

The shows producers were sitting on Susan Boyle for months, her many auditions, and her purposeful lack of styling point directly to a setup. This is the pinnacle of contrived entertainment.

[Pennsanic]

Agreed. But we can all still enjoy her moment in the sun, can't we?

[theyearofasking]

i love rags to riches stories like this, especially when they happen to people who are so seemingly kind-hearted. but honestly, i think ms. boyle's fame has less to do with her voice (which is pretty, but not spectacular), than with the fact that people have somehow been suckered into believing that a singer must look like beyonce in order to perform well.

[dirtystrat]

I'd rather see Beyonce but seriously what's the big deal. I'm sure there are talented people by the hundreds of thousands that have yet to be discovered.

[Golanbiais]

The show's suspense was well produced and the actors acted according to the instructions of a very creative director. The idea is to concentrate in a very brief moment a huge amount of tear jerking. Yes the host of the show were acting as they seemed repulsed and amused by the confidence the ugly duckling was showing. The judges had been aware long in advance that Susan was an exceptional talent but they had to play their parts with the same disdain or enthusiasm they usually show during the auditions. In fact they'd done the same routine before with a guy named Paul Potts (No relation with the Khmer Rouge ). He went instantly from being a shy overweight cell phone sales man to very talented Opera singer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEo5bjnJViA

And...I love it ! each time I listen to Susan or Paul tears run from my eyes and I beg for more.

[Sparty1]

I remember Paul. I don't care if it's calculated or what. What isn't nowadays? I'm just glad that they're out there and willing to come forward. In America, they'd have to look like Beyonce or Justin Timberlake to even be taken seriously. Susan and Paul rock and so long as we can hear their music that's all I care about.

[Bianca Rule]

More from this '' staged show'' as you like to call it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVU4IkzMNIo

[TRichards]

I guess I'm too cynical by far -- although I'll admit to tears everytime I watch the obviously set-up Boyle performance.

Set-up? Yup. Consider:

1) The music, present to ramp up the emotion, all through her post-song triumph.
2) The I-know-wha­t's-coming camera shots on the audience and on the panel that were more perfectly timed than the entrance of the cymbals in an orchestral performance.
3) The off-stage shots in which a chorus of two help tell us what we're seeing and how we should react.

The only question is whether the thing was scripted word-for-word and gesture-by-gesture or only in outline.

But, scripted though it may be, it was certainly effective -- a condensed version of Rocky which also works though undeniably scripted.

We've been manipulated, but it was done so well that -- to be honest about it -- I don't much care. I admired and responded to the manipulation in both Rocky and the Susan Boyle shtick. I congratulate both Stallone and Simon.

[sufi66]

No NO No No.....not scripted at all. Organized and presented after the fact of the amazing performance, but not manipulated.

[AgentMacGyver]

It wasn't broadcast live. There were many many auditions. As for the camera shots -- do you realize that there are always cameras scanning the audience and trained on the judges? It's called editing.

[EndTheHumanWar]

This idea of 'talent' is being oversold big-time. Susan Boyle has worked her ass off to produce that great sound, not because of some innate or mysterious 'talent'.
I cannot think of any great musician who didn't work like the dickens to become great. Can you?

[1440minutes]

As a father of two former child actors, I can state with confidence that millions of people work their tails off to become entertainers but only a handful of unknowns have the talent to do what Susan did.

[Untitled11]

What a lot of people don't understand about Boyle's appeal and her ability to "get up the spine" is that it isn't her voice alone which explain it. I have a suspicion that Susan Boyle can act and this is the hydraulic mechanism making what is otherwise a very clear, strong voice "reach". It's rare. When a performer has both faculties (singing voice and acting talent) , look out. Give her to a director like John Madden or Ang Lee and she'll eat the scenery. It would also save her from the "Entertainment Tonight" and Vegas realm. She needs to exit that arena fast.

[WarrenPease]

Torchman25 - That's a great sentiment but we all know who invented the Internet.

torchman25 said:
"susan boyle, thank you for sharing your beautiful voice to the bankrupt state of california. thank God for the internet!"