Staying Sane in the Age of Phoniness: Susan Boyle
5.26.2009 by Savvy SuzyI can’t believe that here we are at the beginning of the summer season again. Where is all the time going? It must have something to do with being on line, and having all the myriad of little things that need to be done these days associated with all that.
Well, after coming off of the first holiday, I’ve decided to post something that I’ve been following the past month or so. I’m not sure if you’ve been aware of this inspirational story or not, but you’d have to be living under a rock to have missed it, quite frankly. The story of the unemployed, amateur, singer on the show, Britain’s Got Talent, named Susan Boyle.
I ran across her while reading the news one day, early on when her clip on YouTube had around 10,000 hits. Well, it’s eclipsed that amount around about now — coming in at 23,000,000 hits worldwide. If you haven’t heard it take a listen to her singing, “I Dreamed the Dream“, from the musical, es Miserables — it brought chills to me when I first heard her sing.
She’s had some stiff competition, and this past Saturday night she had to compete again — this time singing the song, “Memory” from the musical Cats. She started off a bit off key, but was able to recover, with a strong ending.
Her hair has been dyed and her eyebrows plucked, but somehow she looked quite tense. There wasn’t the same lightheartedness in this performance as her introductory song. I don’t normally follow these kinds of shows like American Idol and America’s Got Talent, but this story, which in a time of all the faux reality shows and phony celebrity stunts, rings true to a large degree. But the question is will she succumb to the stress and the pressure of being in the limelight?
Even when I wanted to think it was some kind of ratings stunt when I first saw her sing on YouTube, something about it touched me in a way that brought tears to my eyes. It’s a sweet story in the age of phoniness — about someone who they wanted to label “over-the-hill” and “frumpy”. It reminds me to keep working and moving in the right direction. It also brings the poem “Desiderata” to mind.
