In a mere six days, Susan Boyle from Scotland has become a multi-million-view sensation on YouTube. Her rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables has been a phenomenon, growing steadily by the minute as more and more people see the video.
Clearly, Susan has an amazing voice. She owned this song, and the audience before too long. In my opinion, “I Dreamed a Dream” is one of the most gorgeous songs ever written, and it’s difficult to sing well. It has a musical range much like the “Star Spangled Banner” (ever have to sing that one by yourself in front of people?). To really pull it off, you need to have some good singing chops. Boy, does she.
But here’s the thing, the real secret to why this woman is getting so much attention and so many cheers. She is not what you expect when she isn’t singing. Susan sang this song on a British talent TV show in front of a large studio audience and and even larger audience watching at home. Though she was just using her voice, so much of a show like that is a visual experience.
She had a lovely dress on, but she wasn’t particularly pretty. Her hair wasn’t anything special, she’d never been married, and she didn’t look like she had a chance. She looked like someone you should feel sorry for, giving it her darnedest but a certain failure about to unfold on stage. As she was being introduced, you could hear sarcastic catcalls and see expressions of disbelief that this woman could ever succeed. A woman like that? Yeah…. right. Looks of confusion, giggling, pity. Expectations of what they thought was about to unfold.
And that’s when the magic happened. At one singular moment about 3 seconds into her singing performance, the entire audience saw how wrong they had been and dropped their expectations straight to the floor. One half second later, they embraced this unbelievable reality of a plain looking unknown woman singing like a Broadway legend. So wrong one second, so emotionally overwhelmed the next.
The crowd eagerly went on the emotional ride with Susan. She hushed them with the sincerity of the lyrics in quieter parts, then shot them through the roof during the climax near the end. Just her voice alone was enough to be thoroughly enjoyable. If this were only an audio clip with no video, the impact would not be as strong. You needed to see her appearance, make your own prejudiced judgment, then go on the ride yourself. To understand how the audience transformed in less than 2 seconds is to understand the miracle of being open to change.
Two of the judges had great courage to speak aloud what the audience had been thinking before Susan’s performance. They were honest to admit that they themselves had been surprised, one saying they were all somewhat “cynical” before she started. The entire audience traveled such a great distance between their initial expectation and the emotional reality, and they did it in a snap. What a rush! That made everyone a bit more humble, and made their satisfaction even deeper. The floor of that performance hall had to be wet with tears.
I even knew there was supposedly something amazing about this video and it still blew me away. Yeah, but how good is she really? Everyone thinks they’re good on these shows. Because of those thoughts, I didn’t watch it until last night even though I’d seen other people commenting on the clips since Monday. Certainly opened my eyes. Go ahead and watch the video, even if you’ve watched it 50 times already. Can’t hurt to do it again.
Here’s the takeaway — who are you misjudging that could blow you away if you gave them the chance? Who is a hidden gem in your life? Who do you minimize in your mind because of your own skewed expectations?
15 comments
Nice take, well explained.
But no matter how we dissect what happened, indeed it’s a miracle by all means. I have never been into such heavenly ride on a song. How on earth she was hidden from all of us the last four decades and more and then take us to such heights of human emotion, almost seeing our own souls in a mirror is more than the usual miracles.
Thanks heaven, you gave us Susan Boyle.
Leon
i’d like to share this to FB. can you please add the app? thanks in advance
Almost every account I’ve read has mentioned that she is “dowdy”, “plain”, “unattractive”, “no style” (whatever that means) and other terms that I won’t mention.
It is very disappointing to me that people are focusing upon this woman’s looks/style.
Where is the love? Nowhere to be found, I’m afraid.
I am very disappointed in my fellow man/woman.
This was a talent show, not a beauty contest. Why would everyone prejudge the woman’s talent based on her appearance? This is the same kind of discriminatory treatment unattractive children are subjecting to in schools. How many talented, brillant people are not nutured, thereby depriving us of their potential contributions.
susan boyle set us up. she had a perfect song and was the perfect person to deliver it, she knew it and played her simplism to the hilt leaving us open to getting hit with her 2×4 of a performance. an awesome brilliant performance.
prejudice is perfectly useful and even necessary in life. especially when you can see that prejudice as a mirror.
she was an embodiment of limitation, of self doubt and bad decisions and then she stood there and cast it all aside with casual confidence. the self doubt was all in our own heads.
The ride that you refer to with Susan Boyle, is not so much about Susan Boyle herself, But almost entirely of who we are when we listen to her. Everyone sees her from their own personal take, their own lives and experiences, and in this fairy tail, there is a marvelous ending.
Susan brought out the worst in the folks, the snide, sarcastic meanness we all seem to have in us.
BUT, she also bought the goodness, and THAT”S what effected those who have watched her performance…the fact that any of us, in today’s society, COULD suddenly feel the joy, the total turnaround our hearts felt for someone most of us thought to be a joke.
We see so many people get booed off; so many who come up with airs, only to find there is no talent; it is EXPECTED of the audience to react by looks and actions first…
I am heavy, dowdy, set in my ways..much like her, so I can relate to Susan.
My father always told me to never judge a book by it’s cover, and I honestly believe and try to follow that dictum…but even so, I was totally shocked, mesmerised to tears of joy, by this woman’s performance. It truly turned an “ugly duckling” into a “swan”.
I hope, with all my heart, that Susan Boyle makes a good life for herself; she deserves it.
Mature,in control me: When she opened her mouth, I jumped out of my chair, arms pumping at the air with tears running down my cheeks. I had to watch a third and forth time before I began to settle down. One of us made it. That was all I could think of.
If only we could look for the real beauty that lies hidden in so many people, especially those who do not have the characteristics of what we consider attractive and therefore valuable.
Yes, we, both individually & as a society, make judgements & assign “worth” for reasons that go back eons & once made sense but, in the 21st century, have become disadvantageous. For our species to survive, the female being attracted to the physically dominant & smart enough to use weapons, male, was evolutionarily necessary.. In Greece & Rome, the gladiator received more accolades than the thinker or musician. Unfortunately & illogically (given the realities of modern times) when I was in school & now, the quarterback of the H.S. team gets more positive input, praise, & attention, and may be in-line for more financial reward from an academic institution, then the top student in physics or the school’s best violinist. There are those (Emerg. physicians & nurses & paramedics) who save at least I life per day, on average, but do not make 2% of the $$ society is willing to bestow, by our collective assigning of “value,” on a top major league shortstop. Ms. Boyle, unfortunately, will have more difficulty being recognized & rewarded than if she were, what we all judge as, “a knock-out.” Way in the future, when beings from another planet arrive at an earth from which we’ve disappeared, after researching our history, they’ll conclude that one of the main reasons for our demise was our inappropriate determination of what deserves our attention & rewards.
I am always surprised when people are surprised by looks-ism. It’s a Darwinian fact of nature that good looking people get an easier ride. Proven in multitudes of experiments. In fact I find it invalidating when people are shocked at looks-ism. Your denial takes away my support system.
I have my own theory about why the Susan Boyle phenomenon has taken off. I think on some level *all* of us are outsiders, with our noses pressed against the windows of the Beautiful People. Who hasn’t been bullied, been chosen last for the team, had our dreams disparaged? Which of us can meet the impossible standards for physical perfection the media puts before us every day? Even the young and trendy will someday find themselves aging and dowdy, and we fear it.
So when one of our own makes it, we celebrate. Too bad the chances of it ever happening to us are less than that of winning the lottery.
The symptomal attention given Ms Boyle can be understood in terms of the ideological problematic of the body-soul relationship:“Such a horrible body, and yet such a great soul!”. The same phenomenon is represented in the Elephant Man: “Such a monstrous outer appearance vs a beautiful inner civility”. Or our trope of the Femme Fatale: “Such a beautiful woman, yet evil”. (See Zizek, Enjoy Your Symptom!)
Why is it that we are so drawn to the “beautiful people” of the world? Even when most of us aren’t model or talent material, we still deep down wish we were. Look at all the TV shows of all the people striving to become “discovered.” And then, Susan Boyle steps up looking like a less-than-perfect individual and blows everyone away. I am so glad for Susan, not only because she has an outstanding voice, but because this humble person taught the entire world a really big lesson about looks and talent. I don’t need to write it here. You all know what it is.
I heard about Susan from a friend. He told me he cried when he heard her….and about how everyone thought she wouldnt do well. I immediately told him THATS BECAUSE EVERYONE IN THAT INDUSTRY ESPECIALLY, IS SO LOOKS AND YOUTH ORIENTED! Whats the big surprise? Then he played me “I dreamed a dream” over the phone and being a classical singer, i wasnt at all impressed. while of course she has talent, you can hear voices like that auditioning for Broadway shows everyday, and for me, a person with a more classically trained voice sings way better….. but susan’s kind of voice is the more “in” thing now. I didnt see it, but cant understand why anyone would cry. there is so much talent around.