(1888PressRelease)
April 21, 2009 - History made when television personality, charity donator entrepreneur, tv producer and acid-tongued judge, thirty-seven year old Simon Phillip Cowell’s only comment after listening to 47 year old Susan Boyle sing, was an unqualified, "Yes".
With an accent as thick as a ploughman's slice bread, Scottish Susan Boyle walked onto centre stage of 'Britain Has Talent', television show, dressed in an outdated frock and a contestant identification label strung around her neck, like a prisoner wearing an identification for a file photograph.
She chatted nervously with Simon about Blackburn, her Scottish village in western Scotland. Susan revealed a down to earth sense of humour that carried her past the obvious skepticism of the judges and the audience.
Dumpy looking Susan was from a different plant to the usual half-dressed, over-the-top floppies, trying to impress the judges, so they can work their way into the Royal Variety Performance in December and win a recording contract. The two thousand strong crowd were heard to audibly snigger, when the Scottish lady from the back-of-beyond, declared, "I’m trying to be a professional singer". You could almost hear the straight faced Simon Cowell grouching "Over my dead body", as the camera conveniently caught a member of the audience rolling her eyes in utter disbelief.
Or was it? The first basic rule of entertainment is to entertain. Everyone knows that magic is slight of hand and showmanship. Yet everyone loves to be fooled by magic.
It has been suggested that the 'American Idol' programme was beginning the long slow slide to oblivion, with a strong possibility that Simon Cowell is bored to tears and leaving the show. Could the British version of the show save the day?
In 2007 Paul Potts was an unknown, overweight, unmarried, unimpressive mobile phone salesman. He rose to stardom when he was 'discovered', winning the first series of 'Britain Has Talent'. Today the 37 year old, travels the world with his rich operatic voice.
Two things were on the side of the series this year. The British public is hungry for any ray of hope, after the Doom and Gloom of the financial tidal wave of 2008. The public are prepared to reach for anything that could even remotely make them hope there can be a better tomorrow. 'Britain Has Talent' and 'American Idol' needed to find a down and out, unimpressive nobody, they could make into a star, to allow the shows Tv ratings to soar. They needed a miracle to help keep those applications for auditions to be on the show, coming in.
The producers got lucky. Unemployed, unmarried, unkissed, volunteer church worker applied for an audition. She is their wrinkly garden style caterpillar, who is quite capable of being transformed into a high flying, gem studded butterfly.
Susan joked nervously on camera, just before going out on stage "I'm gonna make that audience rock".
From the first powerful note of "I Dreamed A Dream", from the show 'Le Miserables', and the jaw dropped look on judges Simon Cowell and Amanda Holden’s faces, the audience rose to its feet in delighted captivation. How could such a frumpy ordinary looking middle aged person, contain such a silken voice, capable of bringing tears to the eyes?
Was Simon joking or was he 'Telling it as it is', when the only comment he made was, "I knew from the moment you walked out on that stage that we were going to hear something extraordinary and I was right". Simon sat silently observing the other two judges reacting in elated shock, not having made any of his usual acidic and derogatory comments.
Was Simon under instructions from the producers? Susan has a fantastic voice, but was it also a unique opportunity for a well performed piece of showmanship as well? Obviously the producers would never let anyone like Susan on their show unless they had a pretty good idea she had the ability to achieve exactly what she did.
Susan will go a long way and deserves to be ‘discovered’. The show will have gain a new popularity and the general public have been inspired, that it is possible to 'Dream a Dream' and see it become a reality. All in all, great entertainment.
The clip on YouTube of Susan's performance has had over 8 million hits. You can’t just watch it once and forget about it.
Dr Wendy Stenberg-Tendys and her husbands are CEO’s of YouMe Support Foundation, (http://youmesupport.org) helping kids in undeveloped countries fulfil their dreams, through high school education grants. For less than the cost of a romantic dinner for two you could help. Take a few minutes to check it out at win a resort, (http://winaresort.com). This is completely GUARANTEED TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE Feel free to contact Wendy on admin ( @ ) youmesupport dot org.
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