Susan Boyle (7 page)

“‘You have become overnight a worldwide star,” CBS anchor Harry Smith gushed. “Do you understand that, do you understand what that means?” Ms Boyle, who also sang a few bars again for those American viewers who had not already heard her on YouTube, responded very simply, “It hasn’t completely sunk in yet.”

‘The whirlwind may only just have begun. CNN was yesterday reporting that after broadcasting excerpts of Ms Boyle this week, it had been besieged by requests from viewers for more. It also said that it would be following up the CBS with an interview with her on its own daily breakfast show,
American Morning
, today.”’

The
Independent
mused on why Susan had this appeal in the Land of the Free. ‘It is a country that will respond always to any variation of the fairy tale where the apparently unprepossessing suddenly becomes pretty, from
Shrek
to
My Fair Lady
.

‘Thus some of the excited headlines yesterday, including “The Moment an Ugly Duckling Became a Swan” in the
New Jersey Star Ledger
and “Susan Boyle Stole My Heart” in the
San Jose Mercury News
in California. Stepping back a little, the
Daily News
in New York noted, “Susan Boyle was the Golden Ticket to Reality TV.”

“‘The grand prize for any ‘reality’ TV show is to stumble, with no prior warning or expectation, on to a moment of drama so engaging we would only expect to find it in carefully scripted fiction,” the
Daily News
wrote. “That’s the prize the British competition show
Britain’s Got Talent
won last Saturday night when a rather drab-looking 47-year-old woman named Susan Boyle sang a version of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ and stopped the show.”’

The
Daily Mail
, too, recognised the global appeal the Susan now had.

‘She is the most unlikely of showbusiness sensations. But amateur singer Susan Boyle has become an international star since wowing the judges and viewers of
Britain’s Got Talent
six days ago. Show creator Simon Cowell is predicting a number one album in the US for churchgoer Miss Boyle after announcing that Oprah Winfrey, America’s leading talk show host, had asked her on to her programme. This comes after 48-year-old Miss Boyle – who lives alone with her cat Pebbles for company – was interviewed for top US breakfast show
Good Morning America
yesterday.

‘She has also been featured in newspapers around the world, even making the front page of the prestigious
Washington Post
and being described by another as having the “voice of an angel”.

‘Yesterday, appearing on
Good Morning America
by satellite from Britain, Miss Boyle was asked by host
Diane Sawyer if she wanted to change the way she looked. “I’d like that,” Miss Boyle replied, adding, “I can’t really believe this is happening.”’

The
New Zealand Herald
said: ‘A middle-aged volunteer church worker with the voice of an angel is Britain’s latest unlikely showbiz star.’ Even France acknowledged her talent when the French news agency AFP (Agence France-Presse) reported on her ‘stunning musical debut’. Susan was truly on her way to becoming a global phenomenon.

CHAPTER FIVE

O
ne of the remarkable aspects of Susan Boyle’s fame is how her appeal has transcended all nationalities and classes. She isn’t just for the section of the public known, for better or worse, as ‘the masses’, or the various outlets of the media who constantly feed the outside world with information and tittle-tattle. Even ‘celebs’ themselves have fallen under her spell. And it didn’t take long for that to happen, either. In the global village we all now inhabit, word circulated in a matter of days.

It was fitting that among the first to acknowledge her gift was Elaine Paige, the woman who had so inspired Susan throughout the years. ‘I did not see the broadcast when it went out as I was taking a little break,’ she said. ‘But when I got back from that holiday my email box was inundated with friends telling me to watch the YouTube clip, which I did – along with everyone else in the world.’

The obvious question, given Susan’s professed
admiration for Paige, was did the West End star think the Scot was any good – and was there a similarity in their voices?

‘When I first saw the YouTube clip I remember having an idea in my head, “Oh, that’s a voice I kind of recognise a bit.” I think there is a kind of similarity. It has a tone to it, a similar timbre. Yes, I can hear a similarity, most definitely. It’s slightly uncanny and a bit spooky even. Yes, I can hear it.

‘When I saw her I thought she was wonderful. She has a clear, natural voice and I was blown away like everybody else. Hearing her sing with such freedom, it was an outstanding performance. When I saw her on YouTube and heard her say that she wanted to sing like me, I was very honoured and flattered. To be an inspiration, when you are completely unaware of it and then to discover in this way, is a, is a big surprise. Well, it’s just very flattering.’

Paige thought Susan was a role model for other people who were dreaming of the same thing and, like many, found it refreshing to hear a voice that didn’t belong to someone of 25 or younger. ‘I think everyone is tired of that youth culture. Equally, in days gone by opera singers could be any shape or size or whatever and no one would comment on their appearance. It was their voice that mattered. I think it is the same with Susan. I think it is her voice that is her talent and I think she should stay true to herself. She comes from a little village in West
Lothian in Scotland; she is a country girl I suppose you could say. I think for her to be glitzy and glamorous in some village in Scotland is not the way for her to go about things and would perhaps be a little unsettling.’

And of the suggestion that the two should sing a duet: ‘If it’s something that Simon Cowell would like to do then it would be my great pleasure to sing with her. Of course, to be in the theatre is a whole different ball game. You need to sing eight times a week, you need energy and stamina and some training. I would love to meet her and talk to her and maybe have tea or something.

‘She is a very natural girl you can see that in her performance. She reached out to the world, as it were. She’s a country girl. And I think she just has the most lovely, natural voice. She’s very open in her performance. And I think, you know, in such gloomy times that we’re all sort of living through at the moment, economically speaking anyway, she was a breath of fresh air, and just came out of the blue and reached out to everybody.’

The star even had a message for Susan: ‘If you want to sing together – let’s.’

Days after being an unknown and generating a million smirks and eye-rolls with her ridiculous suggestion that she would ‘like to be like Elaine Paige’, Susan had the superstar herself not just coming out with a few polite words of praise, but a fulsome, generous and spot-on assessment of Susan and her appeal. And she wanted to sing a duet!

There was more praise to come Susan’s way from another singer familiar with ‘I Dreamed a Dream’.

The two words most often placed before Patti LuPone’s name are ‘Broadway’ and ‘Diva’, and with very good reason. The singer, a contemporary of Elaine Paige, had a career which in many ways mirrored the Brit’s: she starred in
Evita
and
Sunset Boulevard
and, most relevantly as far as Susan was concerned, in 1985, she created the part of Fantine in the Royal Shakespeare Company–Cameron Mackintosh production of
Les Misérables
. In recognition of that debut performance with the Royal Shakespeare Company she became the first American actress to win an Olivier Award.

She too was enraptured by Susan.

The two ‘came together’ on a CBS television show in America: Susan from the front room of her home in Blackburn, Patti on the telephone in the States. Standing ramrod straight in her small living room with its cheap-looking furniture and reproduction paintings on the walls, Susan, wearing a plain white dress and a chunky pearl necklace, answered the by now familiar questions about her performance and the reaction to it, before singing, at the interviewers’ request, a few bars of the song.

Across the other side of the Atlantic, Patti LuPone was listening and she immediately said, ‘I heard that, I cried. Susan, you got pluck girl. It’s not an easy song, it’s the ending actually that is the roughest part, as Susan will attest I’m sure. What you have to hit at the very end of the
song that is difficult. It’s an emotional song. It’s the first ballad in the musical and it comes very early in the show. I saw her performance on YouTube like everybody else. Someone that works in my press agent’s office in New York sent it to me, was it yesterday or the day before, I believe the day before yesterday. My husband and I watched it and I started to cry. Susan you made me cry.’

Asked how she rated Susan’s rendition, LuPone said, ‘From what I could tell on YouTube it was pretty great. So I can imagine what it was like live or on British TV. You can’t really tell a lot from YouTube, but it was pretty powerful. I started to cry. I thought Susan has so much courage and so much pluck.’

The ‘SuBo effect’ worked for Patti too. Susan’s version of the song had the knock-on effect of boosting sales of LuPone’s original recording and putting it in the charts. LuPone wasn’t the only
Les Misérables
‘old hand’ who was enchanted.

Alain Boublil was the librettist on the original French production of
Les Mis
, which he co-wrote with composer Claude-Michel Schönberg. ‘You expect nothing, and then she opens her mouth and you get three or four of the most exciting moments I have ever seen on television,’ he said. ‘I think of Edith Piaf. Piaf was a small woman who looked like nothing. And then she opened her mouth, and this beautiful sound came out.’

Boublil, who also wrote
Miss Saigon
, said of that YouTube appearance:

‘Act I: She arrives and everyone is laughing at her. Act II: She bowls them over. Act III: Everyone is out of their seats.

‘You cannot plan any of that. My wife was crying when she saw it. Even the most cynical people I know have been moved.’

‘I Dreamed a Dream’ was one of the first songs Boublil wrote for the musical in 1979. ‘I remember I was in a car driving in the north of France and was working on this song about Fantine. Her descent into hell – she loses everything: her money, her daughter – takes up several chapters. I had to encapsulate 50 pages of the novel into a three-minute song. So I decided rather than to list all the happiness, I would go inside her head – “I Dreamt of a Different Life” was the original title. And that is how the lyric was born.’

The song was changed to ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ with the help of British lyricist Herbert Kretzmer, and Aretha Franklin and Neil Diamond’s versions were among the composer’s favourites.

Patti LuPone’s version had just entered the charts at No. 27 thanks to the public downloading the song. ‘I didn’t even know the single still existed. The funny thing is that on iTunes, before you come to “I Dreamed a Dream,” all the songs are hip-hop and dance records.
Les Misérables
is something quite special. Every time we think we are done with it, we are not,’ Boublil said.

Neither was the public. Over 50 million people had
paid at the box office to see the show, translated into 21 languages, in practically every country in the world – 53 productions had been seen in 38 countries – producing takings of an estimated £1 billion. Opening in 1985 and still running, it was the longest-running musical production in the West End and there had been four different LP versions as well as numerous orchestral recordings.

No wonder Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the producer who first brought
Les Misérables
to the stage, said, ‘I think there’s every chance Susan Boyle will have the number one album in America, I will predict that. I was gob-smacked by her powerhouse performance. Vocally it is one of the best versions of the song I’ve ever heard.’

Susan’s girlhood idol had been Donny Osmond. She still had some of his pictures on her bedroom wall, so it was fitting that he too should sing her praises.

Osmond sent a message of support telling how his wife wept as she watched and listened to Susan. ‘I consider it an honour Susan used my songs to learn how to sing. Her success story is one that touches each one of us to be great against all odds. It’s phenomenal what can happen today. Susan Boyle is the perfect example of that. When she walked out I was as cynical as everyone else. I thought, “This is a joke.” But when she opened her mouth an angel came out. I looked at my wife and she had tears in her eyes. I got chills. She turned the world around in 20 seconds.

‘I started hearing her say, “Donny Osmond is the inspiration behind my singing”. It is unbelievable. I am so honoured to be considered her inspiration.

‘I am so proud of you Susan for going out there and turning everybody around. You just keep proving them wrong.’

He was even to suggest recording a number with her – his classic ‘Puppy Love’ altered to ‘And they call it, Susan love.’

‘I would die to do a duet with her. I would have her come on stage and I would sing to her and she would sing to me. It would have to be “It Takes Two Baby.” I would have to get rid of the vibrato though; I’m a little bit rock and roll and she’s a little bit opera. I think everyone in show business should go out of their comfort zone, so you should take it to another level Susan, but don’t lose that innocence.’

His sister Marie Osmond echoed his views. ‘I think Susan is phenomenal. I love that you don’t have to be this typical Hollywood stereotype – and people love her for that. She says that she used to lock herself in her room and look at Donny’s pictures while she was singing.

‘I just wish Susan all the best. I say “go girl and enjoy.” Be yourself and have fun.’

In a world where the established means of communication such as newspapers and television seemed almost primitive, Susan was being transformed into a superstar by new technology in all its facets.

Television had launched her, it is true, but it was the relatively newcomer YouTube that literally overnight made her a name and an instantly recognisable figure globally. And the social networking website Twitter was to play its part, too.