Crucial Minutiae

Susan Boyle is this year’s Paul Potts.

Potts, a Carphone Warehouse salesman and 2007 Britain’s Got Talent contestant, rocked audiences with his rendition of “Nessun Dorma.” He went on to win the competition and was subsequently signed to Sony Records, where his debut album sold over 2 million copies.

Boyle seems poised to do the same.

The 2009 Britain’s Got Talent contestant has been all over the American news since bringing an auditorium of cynics to its feet with her performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables. And now her YouTube video is on its way to being the most watched clip of all time.

When Boyle walked out on stage, the audience laughter was audible. The eye rolling exaggerated. Clearly she was going to be the joke. A 47 year-old woman who dreamed of being a professional singer. Absolutely ridiculous.

And then she sang.

If you are alive and if you have a heart, her voice will bring a tear to your eye. Or at the very least leave a lump in your throat. Still, most of the media coverage has focused on the fact that Boyle doesn’t look like a singer.

For a woman to be reduced to her looks and solely her looks is not new territory, but the implied connection between physical beauty and talent is. The Guardian columnist Tanya Gold raises the question, “Is Susan Boyle ugly? Or are we?”

The moments before Boyle sang are filled with cruelty. Like a high school lunchroom, except everyone involved is way too grown. And like any good teen movie, the same kids that openly ridiculed our heroine are the ones who applaud her in the end.

Entertainment Weekly contributor Lisa Schwarzbaum explains, “In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging — the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts — the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms. Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace. She pierced my defenses. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective from time to time.”

Boyle said she hoped to be as a successful Elaine Page. Now a duet with her idol is in the works, and the show isn’t even over yet.

When Simon Cowell, asked Susan why she hadn’t yet achieved her dream of being a professional singer she replied, “No one’s ever given me the chance.” Here’s hoping every Susan gets her chance to shine.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 9:23 pm and is filed under In The News, Music, Pop Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.