Susan Boyle Sings I Dreamed a Dream — Page 4

I still like this guy better....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbiE2eNcX6o

" but this huge outpouring of public interest is most likely going to wane, and then where will she be?"


She'll record a couple of albums, like William Hung, and make a mint and laugh all the way to the bank.

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There is a difference, in that Susan B can actually sing.

At any rate, she's having her fifteen minutes, and she's having them for her talent and not for some infamous deed. Even if that's all it is, I don't think that's so sad. Most of us never even get the fifteen (Warhol's dictum notwithstanding.)

PRS,

I did, and it went into my collection of albums from Tammy Faye Baker and that old woman who can't sing.

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Phyllis, I agree that's why she's getting all the attention.

But there is more of a tradition in the UK of these sort of special category phenoms: Charlotte Church, for example. The big deal wasn't that her voice was all that; it's that she was twelve, or whatever. Or that Russell "The Voice" Watson, whose appeal was largely that he was an ordinary bloke.

Updated On: 4/17/09 at 03:22 PM

"Is it, though?"

Yes, it is beside the point. You commented that she's a curiosity and will fade in a year.

We were (at least I thought we were) discussing the outpouring of ridicule when she stepped out on the stage. It has nothing to do with how long she'll last. I am saying I don't like it when people ridicule others for their appearance, or for that matter, for anything that they cannot help.

And no matter how many times you type the word "fugly", or anyone else does, I will always hate that meanspirited activity of making fun of people.

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I don't mean to be meanspirited, but you didn't like the word homely, either. I'm not trying to denigrate her, even though my snarkiness and cynicism may make it seem otheriwse.

It's not about this woman. It's about why she's appearing at the side of my screen every two seconds. It's about why she's on tv time I look up. And it's because people are stupefied that an unattractive person can sing.

I just think this whole thing is ugly and cynical. But this is the sort of thing that those seven years of Idol auditions hath wrought. If it weren't for that show and the mockery it makes of people (or allows people to make of themselves), this whole thing might have been a non-starter. Perhaps the problem is that now people are conditioned to believe that if you're less than perfect looking you don't have any talent.

To the OP- Thanks for posting that. It was beautiful! I almost cried too!

J*

Jane, I get what you're saying. And I've reread the thread, and I really don't think I'm dragging this whole thing off-topic when the only reason this is such news is because of the way she looks.

However, I think what might not be clearing is that I've been deriding everyone who DOES judge a book by its cover. My first comment about the world realizing homely people can sing was supposed to be sarcastic.

It's not even so much that her voice is out of this world. It's the fact that this is her chance and she's such an underdog. She wants to be a singer and no one has ever given her a chance and this is her chance. And she hit it out of the park. It's your typical underdog story. I think it's very touching.

Updated On: 4/17/09 at 06:22 PM

I think the strength of the reaction elicited by this woman goes beyond the "revelation" that less-than-attractive folks can be talented. That wouldn't be enough to affect people on a deeply emotional level, and I don't believe there's any question that Susan Boyle has done that. It's more that people can relate to her, on an almost primal level. Who among us - even the most youthful and beautiful - has never felt unfairly dismissed, or rejected, or misjudged, or marginalized for some superficial reason? Who hasn't, at one time or another, felt that we weren't being seen for who we were, or weren't being given an opportunity we knew we deserved? Susan Boyle has led a life that most would judge as unremarkable, boring, or even depressing - she's unemployed, unmarried, middle-aged, ordinary looking, and apparently sacrificed her own life to care for her ailing parents. Now, at an age when many would believe her opportunity to pursue dreams has come and gone, she has decided to pursue hers. She walked out on that stage, in front of a huge audience of people prepared to treat her as a joke, and she wiped those smirks off their faces. She triumphed. And that has touched the hearts of people all over the world. To me, it isn't at all hard to understand why.

Updated On: 4/17/09 at 09:24 PM

LadyoftheLake- That was beautiful! Thank you...

J*

I'm sorry, I still don't get the hype. It's like the Octo-mom. I just don't see what's so great. But to each their own.