from The Guardian UK - Monday June 1 2009
Britain's Got Talent judge Piers Morgan said that singer Susan Boyle was emotionally drained and exhausted after being put under more pressure than any other contestant in the show.
Morgan, who was contacted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown after the singer was admitted to a clinic at the weekend, told GMTV: "Nobody has had to put up with the kind of attention Susan has had.
"Nobody could have predicted it. It has been crazy, she has gone from anonymity to being the most downloaded woman in history."
The singer was rushed to the Priory clinic after she started acting strangely following her shock defeat to dance group Diversity on Saturday.
Gordon Brown revealed that he had contacted Piers Morgan and fellow judge Simon Cowell to check that Susan Boyle was OK. Speaking on GMTV, he added: "I hope Susan Boyle is OK because she is a really, really nice person and I think she will do well. I spoke to Simon Cowell last night and to Piers Morgan and wanted to be sure that she was OK."
Morgan said that the length of time Boyle had to wait between her semi-final performance and the final, a week later, had added to the pressure. "It just builds and builds and builds."
He added that Boyle, unlike the other contestants, had been subject to attention from international media and added that "a little bit of negativity crept in." But he insisted that the show's runner up was, "essentially fine".
Reports about Boyle's admission to the clinic claimed that after Saturday's final she shouted backstage "I hate this show" and threw a glass of water at a member of staff who tried to calm her. Production company talkback Thames said she was taking time out on the advice of a doctor.
Morgan denied that the defeat had shattered Boyle's dreams. "Her dream was not to win a talent competition, it was to sing professionally and she will do that." He denied reports that Boyle has already signed recording deals.
But Fred O'Neil, her friend and former voice coach, described her plight as "a tragedy", claiming fame had not brought her happiness. He told BBC Breakfast: "It's such a tragic situation, a woman who really just loves to sing, an innocent woman really, who is just caught up in this fame game."
* * *
This is a silly statement: "Nobody could have predicted it. It has been crazy, she has gone from anonymity to being the most downloaded woman in history."
And now Morgan is throwing the 'international media' under the bus: "He added that Boyle, unlike the other contestants, had been subject to attention from international media and added that "a little bit of negativity crept in."
Uh huh. The 'international media' did it. This Piers Morgan guy just keeps slipping on these banana peels. By next week it will be the aliens... I've heard many comments that the British press is wont to put celebs up on pedestals, then delight in viciously tearing them down.
The American press is insatiable, but not too often vicious. Is it? But then, Piers Morgan himself used to be a star reporter for one of these tabloid journals in the not too distant past. Looks like ol' Gordon Brown himself is running interference on this 'PR' disaster.
I am beginning to agree that Susan Boyle is not equipped to handle all this. Either that, or she is a canny Scot, escaping from a lunatic world - in hiding in the looney bin.
Susan Boyle Winner Britain’s Got Talent?
Moderator: Super Moderators
Editorial CBS News - Chris Matyszczyk
Take Your Victory Lap, Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle has always come second in life.
Second in opportunity. Second, according to those who bullied her in her dismal hometown, in intelligence. And second, one suspects, to the needs of others in her family.
By coming in second in "Britain's Got Talent," however, Boyle got some relief from the frivolous flickers of fame that were burning her very being.
She tossed frumpiness aside, choosing instead to wear the dress of the musical lady she always dreamed of being.
Her eyebrows, still tensely clenched for fear of unwarranted attack from some critic, or perhaps some deranged Englishman, told of her determination to stare down her new surroundings.
They told of her fierce need to quiet every shake and shiver that must have coursed through her body all week.
We had heard that she was breaking down, when it was actually us, or those of us who have heads permanently placed just inside the parts we use for sitting, who were doing the breaking.
Journalists goaded her into reaction. Casual bystanders thought they knew, owned her, or at least had every right to either grab her hem or tear it.
The "Daily Mail" reported that psychiatrists had been counseling her all week.
And then she was supposed to go out and win a talent show that, in her heart, she would have rather have watched in her local pub.
She sang "I Dreamed a Dream" with feeling. Many feelings.
She felt that the opportunity to do what she desperately craved would be forthcoming whether she won in the eyes of the sedentary or not.
She felt that she could sing with defiance and a little delight because this new world into which she had been introduced by the perverse power of the Web allowed her to know about the world beyond her own shores and be known there.
She also felt that even if there were some in Britain who wanted to cut her down to size (a finely-tuned British thing to do), there were those all over the world who felt she was the embodiment of all their secret, and even silly, hopes and dreams.
That those in Britain believed the extremely entertaining dance group, Diversity, was better mattered nothing.
Now Susan Boyle can record and perform. She can enchant America and other places on the globe, where people watched an apparently ordinary human being do something that wasn't merely extraordinary, but that felt extraordinary.
Because she made people feel, she can now herself feel at least some joy in being respected, loved and admired.
No one will dwell on the fact that she came second in some mercifully mundane little British talent show.
Everyone will remember that on some day back in 2009, they watched a video on YouTube and they wept.
Take Your Victory Lap, Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle has always come second in life.
Second in opportunity. Second, according to those who bullied her in her dismal hometown, in intelligence. And second, one suspects, to the needs of others in her family.
By coming in second in "Britain's Got Talent," however, Boyle got some relief from the frivolous flickers of fame that were burning her very being.
She tossed frumpiness aside, choosing instead to wear the dress of the musical lady she always dreamed of being.
Her eyebrows, still tensely clenched for fear of unwarranted attack from some critic, or perhaps some deranged Englishman, told of her determination to stare down her new surroundings.
They told of her fierce need to quiet every shake and shiver that must have coursed through her body all week.
We had heard that she was breaking down, when it was actually us, or those of us who have heads permanently placed just inside the parts we use for sitting, who were doing the breaking.
Journalists goaded her into reaction. Casual bystanders thought they knew, owned her, or at least had every right to either grab her hem or tear it.
The "Daily Mail" reported that psychiatrists had been counseling her all week.
And then she was supposed to go out and win a talent show that, in her heart, she would have rather have watched in her local pub.
She sang "I Dreamed a Dream" with feeling. Many feelings.
She felt that the opportunity to do what she desperately craved would be forthcoming whether she won in the eyes of the sedentary or not.
She felt that she could sing with defiance and a little delight because this new world into which she had been introduced by the perverse power of the Web allowed her to know about the world beyond her own shores and be known there.
She also felt that even if there were some in Britain who wanted to cut her down to size (a finely-tuned British thing to do), there were those all over the world who felt she was the embodiment of all their secret, and even silly, hopes and dreams.
That those in Britain believed the extremely entertaining dance group, Diversity, was better mattered nothing.
Now Susan Boyle can record and perform. She can enchant America and other places on the globe, where people watched an apparently ordinary human being do something that wasn't merely extraordinary, but that felt extraordinary.
Because she made people feel, she can now herself feel at least some joy in being respected, loved and admired.
No one will dwell on the fact that she came second in some mercifully mundane little British talent show.
Everyone will remember that on some day back in 2009, they watched a video on YouTube and they wept.
Answered Prayers
The Tragedy of Susan Boyle
By JOHN WRIGHT
"We live in a world in which the ephemeral is real and the real is, for many, hopefully only ephemeral.
How else to explain the religious obsession with celebrity which governs everything in our lives from the way we see others to the way we see ourselves?
The world which celebrity promises those who embrace its life affirming narrative is a world absent of pain, poverty, boredom, and sadness. It is a fairytale lived in three dimensional splendour, replete with the adulation of millions, more money than you could ever spend, along with untold glamour and excitement. More importantly it offers the only freedom worthy of the name – the freedom to be the person you always dreamed of being, rather than the person you are.
Susan Boyle was one of the anointed few to be allowed entry to this fairytale. This unfashionable, unglamorous, poor woman from an unfashionable, unglamorous, and poor town in Scotland was plucked from obscurity, stuck centre stage, and celebrated by millions of adoring fans around the world. Dubbed the ‘hairy angel’, here was the archetypal ugly duckling with the voice of a swan.
But then something happened, something unscripted and completely out of kilter with the expectations of a world weaned on the promise and the dream of everlasting happiness through fame and fortune. Susan Boyle let the world down. Instead of playing the part of the ‘hairy angel’ with the sonorous voice and thus fulfilling the myth by which we escape the drudgery of our daily lives, to be sure a prime time TV version of the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ or ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, she committed the crime of pulling back the curtain on the myth to reveal its ugly truth – human despair.
In the week leading up to Saturday night’s final of Britain’s Got Talent, her performance eagerly awaited and anticipated, she either would not or could not fill the role which destiny, in the shape of Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan, and Amanda Holden, had decreed was hers. In response celebrity turned on her like a cruel owner turning on its dog for daring to refuse to sit as instructed.
Stories began to leak out about Susan ‘cracking up under the pressure,’ throwing tantrums at the TV, at police officers, at passers-by; there was talk of her being removed from the show; of having been being whisked away to a private hotel and there surrounded by an army of psychiatrists in advance of her big night and the chance of a ticket to the life of happiness she’d been led to believe in her obscurity would be hers if only she got the opportunity to let the world hear that voice one more time.
Watching her walk centre-stage on Saturday was like watching an aircraft coming into land with no undercarriage. Would she land safely? Or would she crash and burn? The seconds of her initial introduction, the moment when flawed, damaged humanity meets the contrived and practised confidence of the judges and the hosts with their cosmetic smiles and plastic charm, passed agonizingly. That Susan had been groomed to say the right things, to suppress her feelings and her emotions, was self evident.
The resulting conflict within was reflected in the way she stuttered and stumbled her way through the supercilious small talk before being invited to perform, small talk designed to extract from each act, like a witness in the dock at a murder trial, more evidence of the transformational experience of the short taste of fame they’ve been privileged to have been given. Her face alternating between the grimace of the pain she was enduring and the smile she’d practised over and over for the approval of her handlers beforehand, we knew then that Susan’s dream had already turned into a nightmare.
But no such deviation is allowed when it comes to the perpetuation of myth as reality, and the distancing of the judges from their discovery was palpable even then.
Already a slave to the demands of the clutch of TV executives, music producers, managers, and promoters who’d already begun to divide up the rewards they were expecting from her talent, now on stage she was also a slave to the expectations unleashed by her audition among the millions who demanded to see the dream realised.
Watching her sing her second rendition of ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ from Les Miserables was like watching a woman cry for help. The plaintive but restrained pitch of voice, stilted body language, and forced smile was at odds with the unrestrained joy with which she sung the same song in the performance which introduced her to the world.
Once it had ended, and she was passed over to the judges, gone was the celebratory praise they’d lavished on her previously. In its place were carefully crafted words of sympathy in deference to the disappointment she’d proved to the hopes she’d unleashed, combined with defiance aimed at those who’d dared criticise her voice, and by definition the judges responsible for daring to give her the acclaim and a shot at the dream which is normally reserved for the kind people we’ve been conditioned to believe really do deserve to be in front of the camera.
Susan Boyle just didn’t fit the criteria of the superstar – not in the way she looked, spoke, or behaved. From the first derisory laughter which met her initial appearance onstage, to the close up of her reaction to her defeat which marked the end of the dream on Saturday, hers is the story of a society in which, we are told, desperation and despair can only be escaped through being picked out from commonplace humanity and elevated to the status of larger than life.
But such a status requires the willingness of the masses who remain condemned to lives of normality to suspend disbelief and thereby enjoy the vicarious thrill of seeing their own dashed hopes and dreams embodied in another for however long the performance lasts.
In the end this 48-year old woman from West Lothian proved that she was too human to fulfil the obligation placed on her to sell and perpetuate the myth. It is why she was so deftly cast aside by those who promised her the promise. It is why she is now receiving treatment in a medical clinic, preparatory to being delivered back to the reality whence she came.
As Oscar Wilde wrote: ‘When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.’
John Wright lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. He can be reached at: [email protected]
The Tragedy of Susan Boyle
By JOHN WRIGHT
"We live in a world in which the ephemeral is real and the real is, for many, hopefully only ephemeral.
How else to explain the religious obsession with celebrity which governs everything in our lives from the way we see others to the way we see ourselves?
The world which celebrity promises those who embrace its life affirming narrative is a world absent of pain, poverty, boredom, and sadness. It is a fairytale lived in three dimensional splendour, replete with the adulation of millions, more money than you could ever spend, along with untold glamour and excitement. More importantly it offers the only freedom worthy of the name – the freedom to be the person you always dreamed of being, rather than the person you are.
Susan Boyle was one of the anointed few to be allowed entry to this fairytale. This unfashionable, unglamorous, poor woman from an unfashionable, unglamorous, and poor town in Scotland was plucked from obscurity, stuck centre stage, and celebrated by millions of adoring fans around the world. Dubbed the ‘hairy angel’, here was the archetypal ugly duckling with the voice of a swan.
But then something happened, something unscripted and completely out of kilter with the expectations of a world weaned on the promise and the dream of everlasting happiness through fame and fortune. Susan Boyle let the world down. Instead of playing the part of the ‘hairy angel’ with the sonorous voice and thus fulfilling the myth by which we escape the drudgery of our daily lives, to be sure a prime time TV version of the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame’ or ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, she committed the crime of pulling back the curtain on the myth to reveal its ugly truth – human despair.
In the week leading up to Saturday night’s final of Britain’s Got Talent, her performance eagerly awaited and anticipated, she either would not or could not fill the role which destiny, in the shape of Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan, and Amanda Holden, had decreed was hers. In response celebrity turned on her like a cruel owner turning on its dog for daring to refuse to sit as instructed.
Stories began to leak out about Susan ‘cracking up under the pressure,’ throwing tantrums at the TV, at police officers, at passers-by; there was talk of her being removed from the show; of having been being whisked away to a private hotel and there surrounded by an army of psychiatrists in advance of her big night and the chance of a ticket to the life of happiness she’d been led to believe in her obscurity would be hers if only she got the opportunity to let the world hear that voice one more time.
Watching her walk centre-stage on Saturday was like watching an aircraft coming into land with no undercarriage. Would she land safely? Or would she crash and burn? The seconds of her initial introduction, the moment when flawed, damaged humanity meets the contrived and practised confidence of the judges and the hosts with their cosmetic smiles and plastic charm, passed agonizingly. That Susan had been groomed to say the right things, to suppress her feelings and her emotions, was self evident.
The resulting conflict within was reflected in the way she stuttered and stumbled her way through the supercilious small talk before being invited to perform, small talk designed to extract from each act, like a witness in the dock at a murder trial, more evidence of the transformational experience of the short taste of fame they’ve been privileged to have been given. Her face alternating between the grimace of the pain she was enduring and the smile she’d practised over and over for the approval of her handlers beforehand, we knew then that Susan’s dream had already turned into a nightmare.
But no such deviation is allowed when it comes to the perpetuation of myth as reality, and the distancing of the judges from their discovery was palpable even then.
Already a slave to the demands of the clutch of TV executives, music producers, managers, and promoters who’d already begun to divide up the rewards they were expecting from her talent, now on stage she was also a slave to the expectations unleashed by her audition among the millions who demanded to see the dream realised.
Watching her sing her second rendition of ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ from Les Miserables was like watching a woman cry for help. The plaintive but restrained pitch of voice, stilted body language, and forced smile was at odds with the unrestrained joy with which she sung the same song in the performance which introduced her to the world.
Once it had ended, and she was passed over to the judges, gone was the celebratory praise they’d lavished on her previously. In its place were carefully crafted words of sympathy in deference to the disappointment she’d proved to the hopes she’d unleashed, combined with defiance aimed at those who’d dared criticise her voice, and by definition the judges responsible for daring to give her the acclaim and a shot at the dream which is normally reserved for the kind people we’ve been conditioned to believe really do deserve to be in front of the camera.
Susan Boyle just didn’t fit the criteria of the superstar – not in the way she looked, spoke, or behaved. From the first derisory laughter which met her initial appearance onstage, to the close up of her reaction to her defeat which marked the end of the dream on Saturday, hers is the story of a society in which, we are told, desperation and despair can only be escaped through being picked out from commonplace humanity and elevated to the status of larger than life.
But such a status requires the willingness of the masses who remain condemned to lives of normality to suspend disbelief and thereby enjoy the vicarious thrill of seeing their own dashed hopes and dreams embodied in another for however long the performance lasts.
In the end this 48-year old woman from West Lothian proved that she was too human to fulfil the obligation placed on her to sell and perpetuate the myth. It is why she was so deftly cast aside by those who promised her the promise. It is why she is now receiving treatment in a medical clinic, preparatory to being delivered back to the reality whence she came.
As Oscar Wilde wrote: ‘When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.’
John Wright lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. He can be reached at: [email protected]
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Psychicwolf
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As Oscar Wilde wrote: ‘When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.’
I have this on my refer...
Wise and wiley, Mr. Wilde, who new all too well the danger of fame.
I have this on my refer...
Wise and wiley, Mr. Wilde, who new all too well the danger of fame.
Dance to heal the earth. Not just when you're dancing, but always. Live the dance, whenever you move, in all you do, dance to heal the earth.
Loved that too, Psychicwolf. A poetry of a piece of journalism, from Edinburgh. Getting some healing myself from most of the news coverage here in the good ole USA, which seems to be much kinder. Hope someone is clipping these fairer articles to save for Susan Boyle. I still say she needs to be allowed some quality time with her delightful feline, Pebbles. Cats are healers, and most seem to seek us out for that purpose - when they are not mystically nodding in some parallel universe.
Who is Zennie Abraham? From City Brights on the internet. I really enjoyed his perspective as well:
After the news of Susan Boyle's admission to a mental clinic for evaluation, I just plain hit the ceiling. I'd followed the stories of Boyle's much-justified outbursts last week - "much-justified" because Boyle was reportedly deliberately harassed by a couple of evil journalists who set out to make her upset - and could not understand how the producers of the now-popular TV Show "Britain's Got Talent" (BGT) would not get protection for Boyle and shield her away from harm.
I then watched in horror as news outlets around the World put all the weight of the issue on her, writing she's "having a meltdown", "SuBo goes loco", or "flies off the handle all the time" or words to that effect, and figured that it was some elaborate PR stunt possibly developed by the BGT minders just to hype up the ratings as people tuned in to see what she would do at the final event, then cement the show's popularity because of the upset loss that was sure to occur since the call-in audience's vote would be effected by the news of her problems.
That's what happened. After the show, Boyle reportedly ran down a hallway screaming "I hate this show." Well I agree with Ms. Boyle 100 percent. The way BGT treated Boyle, and really how a portion of the World handled her, says nothing good about our Western culture and everything bad about how we've "evolved" in the 21st Century.
The more I see it, we're diving headlong into "Revelations" in the Bible, with a Tribulation (a period of persecution and of people who believe in God) and the Second Coming the only way to get us out of this spritual mess. I'm serious. We have some terrible people in our midst. People who would take advantage of a woman with a disability - Boyle has a learning disability - for their own gain, then toss her aside when they're done with her, or create the climate to do so, as BGT did.
Let's recap. First, Boyle enters the BGT competition and when she appears on stage, is made fun of by the audience and the judges. A terrible scene. Then she opens her mouth to sing and the same tormentors cheer her on. BGT and American Idol judge Simon Cowell is wowed. His collegue Piers Morgan takes Boyle on a date. Suddenly, the 47-year old woman still greaving from the loss of her mother in 2007 has reason to smile. After years of loneliness and emotional pain calmed by singing, Boyle's loved around the World for her singing. Boyle said "I'm not lonely anymore," and even had people she never met before flying in to visit her home in Scotland from as far away as Peru. Wild.
But then the dark side emerges. It comes in the form of what we in America call "haters": people who hate to see anyone other than themselves achieve a high level of success. People calling her "matronly", "frumpy", and a "spinster". Fueled by the hypermedia world created by Web 2.0, haters have something negative to say about almost everyone it seems and where they don't have something bad to say, they'll create a reason to say it. Enter the journalists. Stalking Boyle. Camping out at her home all day and night. Taking pictures of her and harassing her. And all the time BGT just lets this happen to her. Hey, as long as she's generating ratings for them, I guess they just don't care.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abr ... y_id=40969
Bravo, Zennie!
Beginning to think, in my astrology analysis here, I under-rated the power of the transiting Moon to Pluto in Susan Boyle's chart. That, and the Moon moved on shortly thereafter to conjunct transiting Saturn which had just moved past the dark nadir of her natal chart. The upswing of this is, once Saturn crosses this lowest point in the chart - the worst is over - and rebuilding begins. Whatever her frailties, Susan Boyle does have a lot of power in her chart.
Now that Saturn is transiting her 5th house (creativity and expression) - which certainly brings setbacks - it also provides structure. I'll need to do another analysis to see what aspects may help or hinder here.
Getting some healing myself from most of the news coverage here in the good ole USA, which seems to be much kinder. Hope someone is clipping these fairer articles to save for Susan Boyle. I still say she needs to be allowed some quality time with her delightful feline, Pebbles. Cats are healers, and most seem to seek us out for that purpose - when they are not mystically nodding in some parallel universe.Who is Zennie Abraham? From City Brights on the internet. I really enjoyed his perspective as well:
After the news of Susan Boyle's admission to a mental clinic for evaluation, I just plain hit the ceiling. I'd followed the stories of Boyle's much-justified outbursts last week - "much-justified" because Boyle was reportedly deliberately harassed by a couple of evil journalists who set out to make her upset - and could not understand how the producers of the now-popular TV Show "Britain's Got Talent" (BGT) would not get protection for Boyle and shield her away from harm.
I then watched in horror as news outlets around the World put all the weight of the issue on her, writing she's "having a meltdown", "SuBo goes loco", or "flies off the handle all the time" or words to that effect, and figured that it was some elaborate PR stunt possibly developed by the BGT minders just to hype up the ratings as people tuned in to see what she would do at the final event, then cement the show's popularity because of the upset loss that was sure to occur since the call-in audience's vote would be effected by the news of her problems.
That's what happened. After the show, Boyle reportedly ran down a hallway screaming "I hate this show." Well I agree with Ms. Boyle 100 percent. The way BGT treated Boyle, and really how a portion of the World handled her, says nothing good about our Western culture and everything bad about how we've "evolved" in the 21st Century.
The more I see it, we're diving headlong into "Revelations" in the Bible, with a Tribulation (a period of persecution and of people who believe in God) and the Second Coming the only way to get us out of this spritual mess. I'm serious. We have some terrible people in our midst. People who would take advantage of a woman with a disability - Boyle has a learning disability - for their own gain, then toss her aside when they're done with her, or create the climate to do so, as BGT did.
Let's recap. First, Boyle enters the BGT competition and when she appears on stage, is made fun of by the audience and the judges. A terrible scene. Then she opens her mouth to sing and the same tormentors cheer her on. BGT and American Idol judge Simon Cowell is wowed. His collegue Piers Morgan takes Boyle on a date. Suddenly, the 47-year old woman still greaving from the loss of her mother in 2007 has reason to smile. After years of loneliness and emotional pain calmed by singing, Boyle's loved around the World for her singing. Boyle said "I'm not lonely anymore," and even had people she never met before flying in to visit her home in Scotland from as far away as Peru. Wild.
But then the dark side emerges. It comes in the form of what we in America call "haters": people who hate to see anyone other than themselves achieve a high level of success. People calling her "matronly", "frumpy", and a "spinster". Fueled by the hypermedia world created by Web 2.0, haters have something negative to say about almost everyone it seems and where they don't have something bad to say, they'll create a reason to say it. Enter the journalists. Stalking Boyle. Camping out at her home all day and night. Taking pictures of her and harassing her. And all the time BGT just lets this happen to her. Hey, as long as she's generating ratings for them, I guess they just don't care.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abr ... y_id=40969
Bravo, Zennie!
Beginning to think, in my astrology analysis here, I under-rated the power of the transiting Moon to Pluto in Susan Boyle's chart. That, and the Moon moved on shortly thereafter to conjunct transiting Saturn which had just moved past the dark nadir of her natal chart. The upswing of this is, once Saturn crosses this lowest point in the chart - the worst is over - and rebuilding begins. Whatever her frailties, Susan Boyle does have a lot of power in her chart.
Now that Saturn is transiting her 5th house (creativity and expression) - which certainly brings setbacks - it also provides structure. I'll need to do another analysis to see what aspects may help or hinder here.
Oh, and I had this thought last night when Prime Minister Gordon Brown contacted the BGT personnel - and inquired into the situation with Susan Boyle. It seemed rather strange that he would do so, but then again he is a strange person - that maybe he had received a phone call from our First Lady. Michelle Obama was much taken with Susan Boyle's performance - and, well - I just had a psychic flash that maybe this had happened. Michelle Obama is a very nurturing and loving person and is not shy when it comes to acting as an advocate for those who do not have power, etc... I can visualize this scenario.
...from telegraph.co.uk 9:00AM BST 03 Jun 2009
Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle has been invited to sing for President Barack Obama at the White House as part of Independence Day celebrations on July 4, according to her brother.
She is said to be looking forward to the Washington event despite her admission to a Priory clinic suffering from physical and mental exhaustion.
Simon Cowell, producer of the series, has telephoned the spinster at the treatment facility to promise he will support her “unconditionally” whatever she decides to do after losing in the final to dance act Diversity.
Her White House invitation is the second from the Obamas after she was asked to attend a dinner in May but was too busy to attend.
The 48-year-old, who has suffered mild learning difficulties as a result of being deprived of oxygen at birth, has been the subject of concern that she has been exploited by the Britain’s Got Talent series. Early ratings results suggest the final episode on Saturday May 30 was the biggest-rating television programme on any channel since England played in the Euro 2004 football tournament, attracting 17.3 million viewers.
Boyle’s brother John, 59, told the Daily Record: “Susan has been invited to the celebrations at the White House with the president. So as you can see, her dream is still very much alive. In fact, it's only just starting.
“Susan is exhausted, that's all there is to it. It's no surprise - she has gone from a small town in West Lothian to being famous around the world.
“She's been battered non-stop for the last seven weeks and it has taken its toll. But she'll be looking forward now to the Fourth of July.”
Despite the invitation there are fears the singer may not appear in public for some time. A spokeswoman for show producers Talkback Thames said it was too early to say whether Boyle would be able to join the live stage tour of the show this month.
Cowell has offered to ignore her contractual obligation to take part in the tour. A report in the Daily Mirror says he called her at the Priory to tell her: “Whatever you decide, I will support you unconditionally.”
Susan’s other brother Gerry, 55, said Boyle was already recovering well. He said: "She was exhausted when we spoke on Sunday but she sounds a lot better today, a bit happier and more like herself.
“She was a wee bit anxious yesterday and a bit fatigued. She's also a wee bit homesick and she misses her cat, Pebbles.”
He added: "Susan is coming to terms with the fact that the world wants to hear her sing. "She's just exhausted and trying to take in everything that's happened. I think her friends in America would call this an anxiety attack.
"Hopefully soon she will be able to relax and release a record so the world can enjoy her voice again. But her health and happiness come first."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... other.html
Very nice. Much more dignified than being trotted out in a variety show for the Queen.
I'll bet the Obamas checked out Susan Boyle's performances as she progressed from semi final to final on BGT and were as unhappy as many were to witness her strangely dark mood in the performance at the end.
I have yet to see anyone quote this remark of Susan Boyle at the end of her performance when the host Declan Donelly asked her if it was 'worth it'. She said very clearly: 'Well worth it. Well worth it, and to hell with everything!' Also noteworthy was her comment in response to a question if she *felt comfortable on stage. She replied: 'Feel comfortable on stage? Of course I do' and then turned to the audience to say: 'I am among friends here, am I not?'
Hope she makes it back home soon, to be with her family and friends - and Pebbles, of course. Glad to hear Simon Cowell is being gracious and said he would let her out of the contract to tour with BGT. The last thing she needs is to be paraded around Britain with the jackals of the tabloids nipping at her heels.
Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle has been invited to sing for President Barack Obama at the White House as part of Independence Day celebrations on July 4, according to her brother.
She is said to be looking forward to the Washington event despite her admission to a Priory clinic suffering from physical and mental exhaustion.
Simon Cowell, producer of the series, has telephoned the spinster at the treatment facility to promise he will support her “unconditionally” whatever she decides to do after losing in the final to dance act Diversity.
Her White House invitation is the second from the Obamas after she was asked to attend a dinner in May but was too busy to attend.
The 48-year-old, who has suffered mild learning difficulties as a result of being deprived of oxygen at birth, has been the subject of concern that she has been exploited by the Britain’s Got Talent series. Early ratings results suggest the final episode on Saturday May 30 was the biggest-rating television programme on any channel since England played in the Euro 2004 football tournament, attracting 17.3 million viewers.
Boyle’s brother John, 59, told the Daily Record: “Susan has been invited to the celebrations at the White House with the president. So as you can see, her dream is still very much alive. In fact, it's only just starting.
“Susan is exhausted, that's all there is to it. It's no surprise - she has gone from a small town in West Lothian to being famous around the world.
“She's been battered non-stop for the last seven weeks and it has taken its toll. But she'll be looking forward now to the Fourth of July.”
Despite the invitation there are fears the singer may not appear in public for some time. A spokeswoman for show producers Talkback Thames said it was too early to say whether Boyle would be able to join the live stage tour of the show this month.
Cowell has offered to ignore her contractual obligation to take part in the tour. A report in the Daily Mirror says he called her at the Priory to tell her: “Whatever you decide, I will support you unconditionally.”
Susan’s other brother Gerry, 55, said Boyle was already recovering well. He said: "She was exhausted when we spoke on Sunday but she sounds a lot better today, a bit happier and more like herself.
“She was a wee bit anxious yesterday and a bit fatigued. She's also a wee bit homesick and she misses her cat, Pebbles.”
He added: "Susan is coming to terms with the fact that the world wants to hear her sing. "She's just exhausted and trying to take in everything that's happened. I think her friends in America would call this an anxiety attack.
"Hopefully soon she will be able to relax and release a record so the world can enjoy her voice again. But her health and happiness come first."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... other.html
Very nice. Much more dignified than being trotted out in a variety show for the Queen.
I'll bet the Obamas checked out Susan Boyle's performances as she progressed from semi final to final on BGT and were as unhappy as many were to witness her strangely dark mood in the performance at the end.
I have yet to see anyone quote this remark of Susan Boyle at the end of her performance when the host Declan Donelly asked her if it was 'worth it'. She said very clearly: 'Well worth it. Well worth it, and to hell with everything!' Also noteworthy was her comment in response to a question if she *felt comfortable on stage. She replied: 'Feel comfortable on stage? Of course I do' and then turned to the audience to say: 'I am among friends here, am I not?'
Hope she makes it back home soon, to be with her family and friends - and Pebbles, of course. Glad to hear Simon Cowell is being gracious and said he would let her out of the contract to tour with BGT. The last thing she needs is to be paraded around Britain with the jackals of the tabloids nipping at her heels.
And this has surfaced today...
Was Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent dream scuppered by wrong phone numbers on YouTube?
Clips on YouTube displayed the WRONG telephone voting number for Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, it has emerged.
Hundreds of fans have complained that, within moments of Miss Boyle's performance on Saturday night, YouTube was re-running clips of it carrying the wrong phone voting number for her, but not for two of her closest rivals.
Viewers believe what appeared to be a simple error could have been an attempt to get Miss Boyle's fans to vote for rival acts.
Fans revealed that the last two digits of Miss Boyle's voting number on YouTube had been changed from the correct '08' to either '07' or '09' which were the numbers for dance group Diversity and singer Shaun Smith.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... uTube.html
Kinda hate it when so many things are reduced to some kind of conspiracy theory. However, it is worth noting that the dance group which won was heavily favored by the youth vote, and that youth group is the most technically saavy about these kinds of thing. There were also many complaints of the call in number for Boyle being unavailble for one reason or another during the voting.
Was Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent dream scuppered by wrong phone numbers on YouTube?
Clips on YouTube displayed the WRONG telephone voting number for Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, it has emerged.
Hundreds of fans have complained that, within moments of Miss Boyle's performance on Saturday night, YouTube was re-running clips of it carrying the wrong phone voting number for her, but not for two of her closest rivals.
Viewers believe what appeared to be a simple error could have been an attempt to get Miss Boyle's fans to vote for rival acts.
Fans revealed that the last two digits of Miss Boyle's voting number on YouTube had been changed from the correct '08' to either '07' or '09' which were the numbers for dance group Diversity and singer Shaun Smith.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... uTube.html
Kinda hate it when so many things are reduced to some kind of conspiracy theory. However, it is worth noting that the dance group which won was heavily favored by the youth vote, and that youth group is the most technically saavy about these kinds of thing. There were also many complaints of the call in number for Boyle being unavailble for one reason or another during the voting.
Susan Boyle checks out of the Priory
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:21 AM on 05th June 2009
Susan Boyle has left the Priory and plans to resume her singing career, it was revealed last night. Insiders say the 48-year-old Britain's Got Talent singer has recovered from her meltdown after she came second in Saturday's final and has departed the private clinic.
The Scottish spinster checked into the hospital on Sunday night after concerns over her mental state.
Family members claimed Miss Boyle, who has learning difficulties, had been racked with worry about her career and a feeling that she had let people down.
But despite claims she could stay for weeks, it has emerged that she checked out on Wednesday.
It is understood that she has spoken to show boss Simon Cowell about recording her debut album but he has told her to rest.
A TV source said: 'She is feeling a lot better and she is now somewhere quiet getting some much needed rest. She is excited about her plans.'
A spokesman for the show said they were unable to comment on Miss Boyle's whereabouts, but insiders confirmed that she is being looked after by family and friends.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... riory.html
Last updated at 3:21 AM on 05th June 2009
Susan Boyle has left the Priory and plans to resume her singing career, it was revealed last night. Insiders say the 48-year-old Britain's Got Talent singer has recovered from her meltdown after she came second in Saturday's final and has departed the private clinic.
The Scottish spinster checked into the hospital on Sunday night after concerns over her mental state.
Family members claimed Miss Boyle, who has learning difficulties, had been racked with worry about her career and a feeling that she had let people down.
But despite claims she could stay for weeks, it has emerged that she checked out on Wednesday.
It is understood that she has spoken to show boss Simon Cowell about recording her debut album but he has told her to rest.
A TV source said: 'She is feeling a lot better and she is now somewhere quiet getting some much needed rest. She is excited about her plans.'
A spokesman for the show said they were unable to comment on Miss Boyle's whereabouts, but insiders confirmed that she is being looked after by family and friends.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... riory.html
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And this has surfaced today...
Was Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent dream scuppered by wrong phone numbers on YouTube?
Clips on YouTube displayed the WRONG telephone voting number for Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, it has emerged.
Hundreds of fans have complained that, within moments of Miss Boyle's performance on Saturday night, YouTube was re-running clips of it carrying the wrong phone voting number for her, but not for two of her closest rivals.
Viewers believe what appeared to be a simple error could have been an attempt to get Miss Boyle's fans to vote for rival acts.
Fans revealed that the last two digits of Miss Boyle's voting number on YouTube had been changed from the correct '08' to either '07' or '09' which were the numbers for dance group Diversity and singer Shaun Smith.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...rs-YouTube.html
Kinda hate it when so many things are reduced to some kind of conspiracy theory. However, it is worth noting that the dance group which won was heavily favored by the youth vote, and that youth group is the most technically saavy about these kinds of thing. There were also many complaints of the call in number for Boyle being unavailble for one reason or another during the voting.
I had a gut feeling something was amiss.
When genuine 1st class talent comes in second to a dime-a-dozen amateur dance group . . . well that's just WRONG.
Was Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent dream scuppered by wrong phone numbers on YouTube?
Clips on YouTube displayed the WRONG telephone voting number for Britain's Got Talent runner-up Susan Boyle, it has emerged.
Hundreds of fans have complained that, within moments of Miss Boyle's performance on Saturday night, YouTube was re-running clips of it carrying the wrong phone voting number for her, but not for two of her closest rivals.
Viewers believe what appeared to be a simple error could have been an attempt to get Miss Boyle's fans to vote for rival acts.
Fans revealed that the last two digits of Miss Boyle's voting number on YouTube had been changed from the correct '08' to either '07' or '09' which were the numbers for dance group Diversity and singer Shaun Smith.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...rs-YouTube.html
Kinda hate it when so many things are reduced to some kind of conspiracy theory. However, it is worth noting that the dance group which won was heavily favored by the youth vote, and that youth group is the most technically saavy about these kinds of thing. There were also many complaints of the call in number for Boyle being unavailble for one reason or another during the voting.
I had a gut feeling something was amiss.
When genuine 1st class talent comes in second to a dime-a-dozen amateur dance group . . . well that's just WRONG.
Last edited by starrmtn001 on 06-05-2009 01:35 PM, edited 1 time in total.
Some Pirates may want to watch this week's "McLaughlin Group". Susan was a topic of discussion near the end of the program. The program will re-air on PBS stations across the country at various times this weekend. The perspectives of John McLaughlin, Monica Crowley, Eleanor Clift, Pat Buchanan, and Mortimer Zuckerman about Susan's sudden rise to fame and the resulting events relating to her are very interesting. All agree however that Susan's "got talent". 
racehorse
BGT a winning formula whatever the final result
By Derek Lord
Published: 06/06/2009
WELL, that’s it all done and dusted for another year and, once again, the winner is – Simon Cowell.
The £100,000 prize is chicken-feed compared with the millions the entrepreneur will rake in from the show’s spin-offs as he picks up his share of the earnings of the finalists over the ensuing months.
I wouldn’t dare suggest that the result was rigged, but it would have been interesting to see just how many votes the three finalists picked up. Of course, Simon did his best to influence the result by awarding the winning dance act 10 out of 10 before the voting started, and it couldn’t have worked out better for him.
If Susan Boyle had won first prize, most of her fans would have cheered happily and got on with their lives. Now they’ll be queuing up to buy her CDs when they hit the shops in an effort to comfort her for her loss. Some loss. Even the most conservative estimates of her projected earnings run into millions.
Simon should also do quite nicely out of the royalties from third-place Julian Smith’s albums. And the young lads who make up Diversity deserve the ten grand each they received for the work they put into their stunning routine.
So, all things considered, it was a fair result and a fitting end to what has been the most entertaining series in the BGT franchise so far.
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Articl ... /?UserKey=
By Derek Lord
Published: 06/06/2009
WELL, that’s it all done and dusted for another year and, once again, the winner is – Simon Cowell.
The £100,000 prize is chicken-feed compared with the millions the entrepreneur will rake in from the show’s spin-offs as he picks up his share of the earnings of the finalists over the ensuing months.
I wouldn’t dare suggest that the result was rigged, but it would have been interesting to see just how many votes the three finalists picked up. Of course, Simon did his best to influence the result by awarding the winning dance act 10 out of 10 before the voting started, and it couldn’t have worked out better for him.
If Susan Boyle had won first prize, most of her fans would have cheered happily and got on with their lives. Now they’ll be queuing up to buy her CDs when they hit the shops in an effort to comfort her for her loss. Some loss. Even the most conservative estimates of her projected earnings run into millions.
Simon should also do quite nicely out of the royalties from third-place Julian Smith’s albums. And the young lads who make up Diversity deserve the ten grand each they received for the work they put into their stunning routine.
So, all things considered, it was a fair result and a fitting end to what has been the most entertaining series in the BGT franchise so far.
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Articl ... /?UserKey=