Around every American kitchen table and office water cooler, Susan Boyle, the Scottish YouTube sensation from the TV show, Britains Got Talent, was being discussed, and not in normally dispassionate terms. Stored up tears found their way down cheeks and usually stoic husbands spoke with a sensitivity that their wives have hoped for, for years.
The prejudgment that the audience and judges made as Boyle marched onto the stage was turned into a rousing standing ovation milliseconds after the Blackburn, Scotland choir singer caroled out the first bars of "I Dreamed a Dream," from the musical "Les Miserables." A halcyon smile that astonishingly did not pull a face muscle due to inactivity was plastered across the face the master of mockery, judge Simon Cowell.
As with many of the millions around the globe I teared up as she surprised the judges and just about most anyone watching. But it wasn't her voice nor the surprise that touched me. It was READ THE REST OF THE SUSAN BOYLE TRIBUTE HERE
Award-winning TV writer Steve Young is author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful...Mistakes, Adversity, Failure and Other Steppingstones to Success" (www.greatfailure.com)