When I heard this week that Simon Cowell will be an on-stage judge on NBC’s America’s Got Talent next summer, I realized that the wildly-popular “talent show,” for lack of a better word, has just upped the bar. Cowell is the genius who originally dreamed up the Got Talent format in Britain and is most famed as being one of the biggest talent scouts in the world. But what millions will never forget is the night he was a “Doubting Thomas” when a Scottish woman – Contestant 43212 – astounded the world with what judge Amanda Holden still calls “the biggest wake-up call ever.”
I, for one, will never forget watching the clip of Susan Boyle when she sang “I Dreamed A Dream,” this shortly after she was introduced to the world in something akin to a seismic wave on April 11, 2009.
That’s when she appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and, as the overweight, dowdy 47-year-old took the stage in a dress the color of weak tea and clunky shoes, it was evident both the judges and the live audience alike were not going to give her a cut dog’s chance.
She would later say, “I know what they were thinking, but why should it matter as long as I can sing. It’s not a beauty contest.” And in the three minutes, 35 seconds, it took her to sing the theme from Les Miserables, she proved how wrong we are when we judge a book by its cover. Guess how many times the audition tape has been viewed on YouTube?
That depends on which one you watch. The Britain’s Got Talent version has been viewed 9,616,575 times but the better one, with the judge’s awe and disbelief, has now been seen 177,459,108 times … combined that’s about 187 million. (Just in the first week, there were 66 million views, which is still a YouTube record.)
The reason for the wild popularity, as explained by the New York Daily News, was that when an underdog “is being ridiculed or humiliated but then enjoys unexpected triumph, it is a common trope in literature, and the stark contrast between the audiences low expectations and the quality of her singing made Boyle’s performance such an engaging piece for television.”
I loved what Jeanne McManus wrote in the Washington Post about a week later, “The eye-rolling public and three jaded judges were waiting for her to squawk like a duck,” she wrote in a marvelous essay, explaining that whether Susan won in the finals was no longer the point. “In a world that is sometimes rife with bloated resumes, stage mothers, fawning friends, self-adulation, narcissism and bed room shelves holding too many trophies from middle school, here is a woman who took an accurate measure of her worth and put it to the test in the white hot crucible of reality TV.”
“There’s nothing wrong with pride,” McManus wrote, “It’s false pride that is the problem.”
I think the most amazing thing is that it took the death of her mother for Susan to screw up her courage and audition for the show. But when the girl the bullies called “Suzie Simple” all the way through school put on one of the most unrehearsed miracles in the history of music, it became the perfect rags-to-riches story, the day the pauper became king.
Since then she has cut five albums and made many millions, which has enabled the singer who was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome – an autism disorder characterized by difficulties in social situations and non-verbal communication (!) – to become one of Scotland’s most benevolent superstars. She has starred at many charity events and, yes, every Sunday she still sings in her church choir.
“Modern society is too quick to judge people on their appearances. There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think. It is the way they are. Maybe this could teach them a lesson or, better, set an example,” Boyle said in one of thousands of interviews.
We have imbedded the tape at the end of this story and there are two things you must look for if you care to view it. As Boyle is being introduced, a camera scanning the audience captured a young girl rolling her eyes. It was soon discovered the girl was Jennifer Byrne of Glasgow and in the months that followed people from all over the world unleashed a hate campaign with “horrible” online threats. Said Jennifer, “It was the same thing everybody else was thinking.”
Almost as stunning as Boyle’s talent was the immediate reaction from the judges, including Cowell. Make sure you watch their reaction and know they said just exactly what 187 million people now know to be true. Enjoy this: Click Here.
royexum@aol.com