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April 20, 2009

On why Susan Boyle inspires us

Topics: Human Interest

As Maria Puenta suggests at USA Today, after a week of unabashed hysteria about Scottish chanteuse Susan Boyle, it's time to pause and ask: What's it all about?. After all, it is indeed a story like a Disney movie, it's a real-life fairy tale:

A psychological boost for a world battered by economic calamity? A spiritual moment for millions in search of transcendence? Maybe it's about rooting for the underdog. Or maybe it's just a new reminder of an old truism: You can't judge a book by its cover.

"Susan Boyle is a Disney movie waiting to happen," says church worker Janelle Gregory, 34, of Olathe, Kan.

Boyle, for those who have been unconscious lately, is the middle-aged woman with frizzy hair who has been all over TV and computer screens for days, singing a Broadway show tune while millions wept and shouted and applauded wildly.

Ten days ago, Boyle -- 47, unglamorous, unfashionable, unknown -- faced down a sneering British audience and panel of judges on Britain's Got Talent, including the ever-sneery Simon Cowell. Then, in an instant, she turned jeers to cheers with her rendition of one of the weepier numbers from Les Misérables. Almost as instantly, Boyle went viral: A clip on YouTube garnered millions of hits (almost 30 million so far, not counting millions more on thousands of other versions on YouTube).

"All of us reveled in the fact that even in our image-managed world, we could still have the tables turned on us," says Terry Christopher, 40, a computer developer in Phoenix.

For the English-speaking media, still breathless from covering the introduction of Bo the White House puppy, Boyle is cable catnip. Last week, she was on TV from early morning to late night, telling her Cinderella back story (youngest of nine, learning-disabled and bullied as a child, caretaker for her dying mother, never been kissed, singer in the choir, possessor of big dreams) to all who trekked in person or by satellite to her Scottish village outside Edinburgh.

The common refrain in comments about Boyle: I watched her over and over, and I cried and cried. "Every time I watched it, I felt emotional," says Julie Carrigan, 47, a mother of five in Hemet, Calif.

But why?

Read it all for ten reasons and what it likely comes down to. I found myself agreeing with all of them.

Posted by Hyscience at April 20, 2009 10:04 AM

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• On why Susan Boyle inspires us - Apr 20, 2009