Church Lady, Susan Boyle, Blows Simon Cowell Away!
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As reported by the New York Times, she has been watched by more than 20.2 million people on YouTube, Twittered about by Demi and Ashton, praised by Patti LuPone, admired by the bloggerati, snapped by the paparazzi, swarmed by camera crews, interrogated by reporters and restyled, sort of, for American television.
But now Susan Boyle, the middle-aged church volunteer whose soaring performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” on a British talent show last week turned her into the world’s newest instant celebrity, is trying to catch her breath.
“All the attention has been quite an upheaval, and she is quite tired,” Miss Boyle’s brother, John, told reporters on Thursday outside her tiny pebbledash cottage in tiny, previously unexciting Blackburn, Scotland. “I have taken her away to let her have some peace and quiet before the next round.”
Miss Boyle is unmarried (and unkissed, she told the program), has no job, lives with her cat and has until now sung mostly in her local church. But she has become a heroine not only to people dreaming of being catapulted from obscurity to fame but also to those who cheer her triumph over looks-ism and ageism in a world that so values youth and beauty.
Her life has changed irrevocably. The show has provided her with a publicist, whose job is to run interference and field basic questions, like, Is Miss Boyle available for an interview? (No is the answer.) But though the storms are gathering, they will have to gather in a contained manner for at least the next month. “Britain’s Got Talent” is still in its early stages, where the judges pick contestants from regional auditions, and Miss Boyle’s next chance of appearing does not come until May 23, the semifinal round.
