Susan Boyle

by Alice Montgomery

  It did seem incredible, though, that it had taken so long for Susan’s talent to be recognized, especially when another video surfaced from 1984. This one was truly jaw-dropping in the light of what the world knew about Susan. It was taken at Motherwell FC’s Fir Park Social Club, which was staging a singing contest between the locals and Coventry’s Tam O’Shanter Club, and Susan was seconded in to sing when someone dropped out. She performed ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ and ‘Memories’, the theme tune from The Way We Were, and her voice is as clear, strong and powerful as it is today. But what really knocks the viewer for six is Susan’s appearance.

  The video of Susan singing so many years ago established beyond a shadow of a doubt that Susan was an extremely pretty young woman. This isn’t just a polite compliment to a lady coping with a great deal of unfavourable comment about her appearance in middle age; it’s a fact. Susan was slim, had prominent cheekbones, clear skin and a mass of dark, curly hair. She sang with confidence and grace, and anyone viewing the video would have considered her quite a catch.

  Her appearance in middle age showed, it seemed, how life had taken its toll. She had led a pretty selfless existence, spending almost her entire adult life doing charity work and looking after her mother, but seeing the video of a young Susan dispels any surprise about the fact that she scrubbed up well. The only surprise is that Susan didn’t attract more admirers in her youth, although when she left the stage, she is quite clearly seen receiving a kiss. Had she still looked like that when she appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, she would never have been on the receiving end of the comments she had to endure.

  Gerry McGuinness, a school caretaker who took the video, and unearthed it twenty-five years later, certainly thought so. ‘I can remember that she was a shy young girl, but also very attractive back then - she turned a few heads when she came into the club,’ he told the Daily Record, which also put the clip on its website. ‘She was not even supposed to be singing, but agreed to perform for the Tam O’Shanter team because someone had dropped out. Even back then I don’t think anyone expected too much from her because she was so shy, but when she began singing people took notice. I watched Susan on Britain’s Got Talent but didn’t recognize her as the girl from my video until a relation called and asked if I still had the tape.’

  The answer was that he did. ‘When I realized who it was, I called my son Jamie in Wishaw and told him I was sending up the video,’ Gerry continued. ‘It’s great Susan is finally getting some recognition. She is a great singer and it seems right that at some point she would get the credit she deserved.’

  Jamie was also pretty staggered. ‘It is just amazing that nobody realized what a talent she was until now,’ he said. ‘When you watch the video, it seems so obvious that she was born to be a star.’

  The video was, in some ways, just a forerunner of Susan’s extraordinary performance two and a half decades later. Everyone who had known her as a young girl talked constantly about her shyness, which had clearly been a burden she had been forced to overcome. But watching her perform all those years ago, the shyness is not apparent. There’s something slightly modest about the way she looks as she sings, but she’s able to put body and soul into the song and immerse herself in it entirely. As she herself said after she became famous, when she sang, she was able to communicate with the world in a way she couldn’t through speech. And just as in ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, she really inhabited the song ‘Memories’ and made it her own, another quality that made her stand out from the rest. The song is about a woman looking back over a past love affair - something it was well known that Susan had never experienced - and yet she sang the song with real emotion and pathos. It could have been her own memories she was looking back on that night, and a love that had once burned brightly but was now lost.

  Her previous shyness only served to highlight how far Susan had come. If it was still there - and it was - she was hiding it well: for all the strain of being under constant surveillance, there were still plenty of cheery waves to photographers, journalists, passers-by and well-wishers. Perhaps twenty-five years previously Susan had hoped that someone would see her performance at Motherwell FC’s Fir Park Social Club and make her a star: she’d certainly had to wait a long time to be recognized since then. Nor was the wait over, for Susan had still not been allowed to sing publicly since her first audition, and many surrounding her feared that if she wasn’t allowed to do something soon she’d miss her chance.

  Susan proved more patient and sensible, though, biding her time, and eventually Cowell relented and gave an interview in which he admitted how extraordinary the SuBo phenomenon was: ‘It’s early days, but Susan could become the biggest star I’ve ever discovered,’ he told the Daily Record. ‘She’s got a real shot this year of doing something phenomenal for herself, probably more than she realizes. I think every record label in the world would want to sign Susan right now. She is in a fantastic position.’ She just had to be patient.

  Cowell had been in the music business for a long time, but even he was taken aback by the scale of Susan’s popularity. ‘I have never seen anything like it in my life,’ he said. ‘Susan is the biggest entertainment story this year. It has dominated the news for weeks and never gone off the radar. It’s the biggest phenomenon I’ve ever seen out of any of my shows. I’ve never seen anything travel so quickly, particularly what happened on the internet. She’s got the world at her feet right now - but there’s no need to panic. I read about her family saying they want to capitalize on this, and right now I think that would be a huge mistake. The offers she is getting from people won’t go away. There’s going to be as much support for Susan in one year’s time or two years’ time. I had a very similar situation with Paul Potts, where people were asking should he capitalize on his fame, but I said, “No, this is just part of the process.” He went on with the rest of the competition, he was treated fairly, he won and sold five million records.’

  It was sound advice from a man who had been there, done that and got the T-shirt. Simon was able to keep an eye on the bigger picture, so much so that he could envisage a future that even Susan couldn’t imagine for herself.

  ‘Susan is representing Scotland in a huge talent competition,’ he said. ‘Dropping out would be like Scotland being in the World Cup and saying just before the final, “You know what? I don’t think we’ll enter.” Broadway and Hollywood are possibilities for Susan, but it’s one step at a time at the moment. We have to take it a week at a time, and if she achieves what I think she can, then it’s going to be an incredible end for her in Britain’s Got Talent. That opportunity shouldn’t be taken away from her now.’

  Simon Cowell is not a man known for apologizing, but he did now: ‘I would love to sit her down for five minutes and say, “Susan, you proved a point, you turned us around in five seconds, I apologize we ever doubted you,”’ he went on. ‘“We are supporting you, we want you to do well and we’re going to be there for you.” The second Susan walked on, I think the audience smelled blood. I think they thought it was probably going to last about five seconds because she looked nervous, she had a funny walk and she was finding it difficult to answer my questions. And there was no doubt we all thought this was probably going to be an audition that lasts about five seconds. Then of course she started singing. I don’t think we’ve ever been shut up so quickly in our lives. The way she affected the audience was astonishing. One minute they were about to boo her, and the next she’s got them in the palm of her hand. Right now she is one of the most famous people in the world. If nothing else happens, she has acceptance and, for whatever reason, I don’t think she had that before.’

  Cowell was spot on. Susan’s music had always been her salvation, and now it was leading her into a whole different world of opportunity. The young Susan on the video, with so much to look forward to, had lived a difficult life, but her talent had endured, and now it was bringing her acceptance. Whatever life had in store for her, she would always have that ast
onishing audition and the respect she’d garnered that day.

  In the meantime, Britain’s Got Talent continued to motor on. Cowell has a genius for publicity - something no one can doubt - and when a promising contestant didn’t have a suitable back story, he managed to pull one out of a hat by creating an on-air feud.

  The latest contestant to get through to the semi-final was Sue Son, a violinist from London, but for Sue, things hadn’t quite gone according to plan. She’d come on the show as one half of a classical duo called Addicted, with her friend Janine Khalil. In a stroke of Mephistophelean brilliance, Simon suggested that Sue split from Janine and strike out on her own, which Sue, of course, did. Jealousy and accusations of betrayal followed - and all on national television. Initially Janine said that she would have done the same, but then she appeared to change her mind.

  ‘I thought everything was fine,’ said Sue somewhat naively. ‘Later she admitted she was devastated. She didn’t want me to do the show. I thought she would be a true friend and support me but she’s been ignoring my calls and has blocked me on Facebook. She even called my mum the other day in Korea at 3a.m., telling her I’d betrayed her. I can’t believe she would do that - contacting my mum at three in the morning talking about how I’d betrayed her. It’s awful.’ But it certainly made good TV.

  Meanwhile it was suggested that Susan should become the face of a cosmetics company - she’d certainly made a dramatic change in her appearance - or make an appearance on I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here!, also presented by Ant and Dec. In truth, for a woman like Susan, there could hardly have been a less suitable show, but no one seemed to have realized that yet.

  The next contestant to get through was Jamie Pugh. He had a very sad story to tell as his wife had died of cancer ten years earlier. But to his great credit he didn’t make a song and dance about it, confining himself to talking about his nerves instead.

  Someone else who was taking a keen interest in the show was one of the very few people who might have understood how Susan was feeling - Paul Potts - although even he hadn’t come under such intensive scrutiny. As the very first winner of Britain’s Got Talent, Potts was a similarly unlikely artist, with an equally unconventional appearance, although because he was a man it seemed to matter less and cause less comment in the media. Nor did he have to put up with the male equivalent of the ‘virgin spinster’ tag that had been firmly attached to Susan. He had, however, been thrown from a life of quiet obscurity into the media limelight, and more to the point, he had built a lasting career on the back of it.

  Potts was quick to offer Susan his support: ‘I think she’s great, I think she’s in with a great chance,’ he said. ‘But there are a number of people who also stand a chance and I’m conscious of the fact that the set-up is slightly different this year. She did week one and has got a lot more pressure on her. I wish her well. I think she’s done really well and she’s coped with the media attention. I don’t know how I would have coped with suddenly finding photographers on my doorstep.’ He was also conscious of the commercial possibilities of working together: ‘I’d be looking at a duet in the future,’ he continued. ‘But it’s early days yet. I wouldn’t want to add any more pressure than she has already. She’s taking every new day as it comes. She has to enjoy it as much as possible and not think about the pressure of her next performance, because that will be different.’

  In truth, Susan was thinking of little else apart from her next performance. She had been spotted with a list of songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber in her hand, leading to intense speculation about what she would perform next, a crucial decision if she were to prove she wasn’t a one-trick pony. All this time the stage of Britain’s Got Talent was filling up with children, and one night in mid-May there were no fewer than six acts on stage featuring youngsters. They had the benefit of the cuteness factor, and Amanda energetically leaping to her feet to applaud as often as she could, but despite this, none of them created as memorable a moment as Susan had.

  The semi-final was drawing near now, putting Susan under even greater pressure, and although there were to be some much publicized quivers, Susan was showing every sign of being able to square up to her new life.

  The measure of her celebrity became clear when she was invited to appear on the queen of all chat shows, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Susan’s neighbours in Blackburn had become accustomed to seeing television crews camped on her lawn, but this was the big one. The team from Oprah duly arrived and set up chez Susan, where she started off by giving them a tour of her house - an extremely modest affair in global celebrity standards.

  In many ways it was a clever move, for Susan had had little direct contact with the public since becoming an overnight star, and while her appearance on Oprah didn’t allow her to sing, it did mean she could comment on all the stories that had been flying around.

  Her appearance had required permission from the Britain’s Got Talent team, however, and they had specified that Team Oprah must visit Susan rather than Susan flying to them, since they did not want it to look as though Susan was receiving special treatment. Her appearance did go some way towards deflecting criticism that they were allowing Susan to remain in limbo for so long - a globally recognized singer who wasn’t allowed to sing.

  The first issue Oprah tackled was the makeover nonsense, which had attracted such criticism from some quarters, as if a woman shouldn’t be allowed to make the best of what she had. Given the jibes she’d endured after her first appearance, Susan wouldn’t be human if she hadn’t wanted to smarten up. ‘That was just to tidy myself up like any other female would have done,’ she explained. ‘Depends what you mean by a makeover. I mean, my best friend actually helps me with my make-up. I mean, that’s hardly a makeover.’

  Sounding friendly and modest, Susan explained that she was by no means certain she’d win the competition, and that she wasn’t lonely at all, given that she had millions of new friends. As for her newfound fame, she said, ‘I think change is very hard to get used to at first, but [I’m] really enjoying it, really enjoying every second of it. It’s like a dream come true.’ Given her Scottish accent, Susan was subtitled for the benefit of the American audience, which greeted her appearance rapturously. Although she still hadn’t been there, Susan had admirers aplenty over the pond.

  Back in Blighty, Susan was getting ready for her next big appearance. The agonizing wait was very nearly over, and the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent were on the horizon. The change in the significance of her first and second appearance could not have been more momentous. While the first time round she had everything to play for, now she had everything to lose. And how on earth could she top that first appearance? Would Susan Boyle be able to pull off another electrifying performance?

  All Alone in the Spotlight

  The moment Susan and the rest of the world had been waiting for had very nearly arrived. She had made it through to the semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent in its very first week, and now they were about to take place. The tension was mounting and the weight of expectation on Susan was very heavy indeed.

  Piers Morgan couldn’t resist shoving his oar in, in the run-up to the big day. ‘After Susan auditioned for the show and said she’d never been kissed and never had a boyfriend, I did say that I would break her “kissing duck”,’ he said. ‘That offer still stands. I have not seen her since the auditions. So when we meet again, if Susan asks for a kiss, I’ll do it . . . on TV.’

  Of course it would be on TV - where else? In the event, Susan was wise enough to decline his offer, but Piers had a serious point to make, as well. ‘Susan’s popularity is a double-edged sword,’ he continued. ‘If her fans think her winning the show is a foregone conclusion, they may not vote for her. Secondly, Susan must be under more pressure than anyone else. Some 200 million people have seen her sing “I Dreamed A Dream”. How can you top that?’

  How indeed? The answer is you couldn’t, but that didn’t necessarily matter. What mattered was that Su
san put in an absolutely top-class performance, and to make matters more stressful, this time it was going to be live.

  Susan was the first to admit she was feeling the strain: ‘The largest audience I have performed to before this show was around 500 people in a local theatre for the Voluntary Arts Council in West Lothian,’ she told the Daily Star. ‘I never even thought I’d get past the judges. I can’t believe I am in the semi-finals and I’ve been overwhelmed by the public reaction to my performance. I will be very nervous but I am just going to go out there and do my best.’

  The exact nature of the performance, including what Susan was going to wear and what she would sing, were still a closely guarded secret. Everyone knew how much was at stake, and everyone realized that Susan’s was the most eagerly anticipated appearance on the show.

  ‘She has a God-given incredible raw talent and a passion that is second to none,’ said Yvie Burnett, the Britain’s Got Talent voice coach, who had worked with many a big star in the past. ‘I have worked with hugely gifted artists, but when it comes to Susan’s genre of music, she is the best I have ever had the pleasure of coaching. She will have the whole nation in tears in the live semi-finals. I’ll be crying too.’

  At least one hoped so, for nothing was set in stone yet. All the judges were quick to say that it wasn’t a given that Susan would get through to the final, and at times they seemed impatient about the fuss everyone was making. There were other contestants too, after all - in some cases very good ones - and there was a fear that Susan’s rise to prominence had been so sudden she risked a backlash, although in truth there had been no sign of such a thing.

  Yvie put her finger on the many qualities that Susan displayed that had made her so popular. ‘There is a realness and charm about Susan that you can’t help but love,’ she said. ‘She’s a normal woman from a wee village in Scotland who happens to have a stunning voice. I was in America when the show first aired. I was watching the news and the presenter started talking about someone on British Idol. I watched in awe as they played her singing “I Dreamed A Dream”. No matter whether she wins or not, I can’t see her jumping into a limo or living a celebrity lifestyle. She was having a right laugh about her mention on The Simpsons, and I think it’s her fantastic sense of humour that will help carry her through all the hype.’