I don’t get what’s so good about this Susan Boyle thing. Being surprised that an ugly hairy woman can sing makes about as much sense as presupposing that any nubile 19 year old blinde can sing. It was an OK kind of moment watching the judges and the audiences respond, but basically that very moment merely revealed them to have a collectivity moronity somewhere north of the HBOS’s executive directors.
To put it another way, if a 19 year nubile blonde had sashayed out onto the stage with that voice, she’d probably have been met with a resounding meh. There’s also a small edge of sexism at play here: we apparently have no difficulty believing that ugly men can sing as Barry Manilow, Gary Barlow and any number of craggy blues singers will attest.
Susan Boyle may not be a very good looking woman but she has an angelic voice.~
Well she’s a better than average singer and I’m not dissing her ability. The point is: why was anyone surprised that an ugly person can sing?
I bet you knew I’d come out of the woodwork for this one. This Boyle thing does my nut. She’s an OK singer but she would not get very far in a West End/Broadway audition. She rushes the tempo all the time, her pitching can be suspect at the best of times and (contrary to popular opinion) I don’t hear any feeling or expression in her singing at all. Compare I Dreamed A Dream with Ruthie Henshall’s version on Youtube. This is fair comment for an amateur done good but the problem is she’s been built up too much, is now breaking records all over the place and get’s compared with singers like Streisand. I feel sorry for her really because it is way too much pressure.
If that had been a budding, young West End singer they wouldn’t have given a toss. After all, where’s the drama in that. I suppose a family sob story could have made up for the overqualification.
Over the years I’ve played with and even taught so many singers that absolutely annhilate Susan Boyle in every way but they would never get a look in because they would be classed as either professional (meaning unfair advantage) or they don’t provide that special something (ugliness, sob story, weight issues etc.). Britain really does have talent all over the place, pushing for the few gigs and shows that are available and Susan Boyle does have more talent than the average wannabe X factor chav idiot but as we all know that isn’t what talent shows are about.