In Case You Haven't Seen Her Yet...

By now I suppose even Osama Bin Laden in a cave somewhere has seen Susan Boyle on "Britain's Got Talent." I wanted to "embed" the video here but the dozens of clips are all incapable of embedding by request, so if you have not seen the clip you'll have to CLICK HERE to see the long version. And Click here to see a shortened version.

Come back afterwards.

Some observations about this phenomenal story:

First of all this is a live weekly show in the U.K., and so is "American Idol" here in the states. This means that Simon Cowell must fly back and forth each week to do both shows. That is remarkable considering the nine-hour time difference between England and L.A. No wonder he is sometimes a bit cranky when he's in the Pacific Time Zone. But as you saw in the Youtube clip, Simon is never more charming than when he has been truly charmed.

Of the two TV shows, I like the U.K. title far better than ours. I know many people detest these "talent search" shows. but I'm speaking only of the titles. "American Idol" says it all. As a culture, we tend to want and create "idols." We prop them up, worship them, and cast them aside for new idols as our feelings and selfish needs change. Scripture says a lot about this human flaw. [Click here and keep hitting the "next" button at the bottom to see all 172 warnings against idols.]The Bible also tells us the story of the "talents." It was monetary unit back then. We use the word differently now, but our meaning clearly comes from the Biblical story.

My Mom taught us a Sunday School song when we were kids that went like this:

You have a talent. .... [C-A-G-F-C] (Notes in brackets.)
Use it for the Lord. ....[D-F-E-D-C]
If you do not use it, ...[C-C-F-E-E-D]
you will surely lose it. [D-D-G-F-F-E]
You have a talent. .....[C-A-G-F-C]
Use it for the Lord. ....[D-F-E-G-F]

That's why whenever I hear the word "talent" (as in Britain's Got Talent) it implies that whatever talents we may have were given to us to be used. Whereas "American Idol" is audience-driven. Sure it's based on talent, but its title implies that the audience is in the process of propping up its next "idol" to cry out to, to draw near to, to reach up to, to admire and adore, etc. See what I mean? It's an awful lot like worship if you think about it.
Hmmmm...

Secondly, I must admit I was moved by Susan Boyle's story as it was reflected in this song. She seems content with her simple life of met-needs but unafraid to reach for one really big dream to tuck into her brown paper bag. Such courage and contentment is a gift in itself...her voice is the frosting on the cake.

I was sad to hear that she'd recently lost her mother who also shared this dream for her. Susan Boyle had never heard of "Youtube" last week, and now her Youtube clip has received over 100,000,000 hits (if you add up all the different versions of it) in just a matter of days. She has granted countless TV interviews in the six days since this story broke. Rumor has it that she will be on Oprah soon.

Thirdly, in spite of her skyrocketing stardom, critics have already said that if she hadn't been such a plain woman, her singing would have been deemed quite average. There may be some truth in that. But if you consider "singing" as communicative art, it is her common appearance, her untouched persona, and her confident vocal that makes her so endearing.

So I would disagree with those who say her first performance was a fluke and that she cannot possibly live up to the hype in the weeks to come. First of all, Susan says she "took voice" at Livingston (I'm not sure what that means, but she does.); second, her fellow Scotts speak highly of her singing at previous unrecorded talent shows; and my last bit of evidence is at this link. This is the same Susan Boyle singing "Cry Me a River" in 1999. She has a Linda Ronstadt voice. (Click here to see how Susan's 1999 song was recorded.) If she can sing like that, her talent will continue to surprise and WOW her audience week after week. And I hope the success and fame does not rob her of her frumpy charm. [I'm also guessing that Simon knew some of this before she sung, and he can't wait for her to bloom a little more each week.]

Added May 11: Here is another performance from Susan's past (25 years ago).

This is not the first time this British TV show has captured our hearts. We were won-over by a previous contestant on the show two years ago. I wrote about it here at Patterns of Ink. His name was Paul Potts. His story is different in that he is obviously a trained voice who truly "nails" his song, but this phone salesman struggled with stage fright and then got old enough to say, "Hey, What Have I got to lose" so he stepped out on the stage and here's what happened.

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Next chapter coming soon...