The extraordinary success of Susan Boyle shows two things, seemingly contradictory, but in the end very gratifying about human nature.
People were surprised that someone who looks like Susan Boyle could have such a beautiful voice. This shows the initial shallowness that just about every one of us suffers from in one way or another: we tend to discount people who are not physically attractive. In that sense, we are no older, emotionally, than when we were nine or ten years old.
But the speed with which everyone recognized the beautiful talent of Susan Boyle shows that we also have more depth than meets the eye: we are excited, thrilled, to see that physical beauty is indeed only skin deep, and that you can't judge a book by its cover. What starts out as curiosity, driving more than 30 million people to YouTube, at this count, quickly transforms into a satisfaction, a deep delight, that someone so unexpectedly can have such a wonderful, joyous voice. We are pleased to our core to find that there are far more important things than what we look like, and that in fact visual image can be totally irrelevant to some of the best things in life. We feel good about discovering that, because deep down we already knew it.
Susan Boyle's success speaks to the deepest and best parts of our human natures. It also speaks to the continually growing power of social media and the Internet. There was once was a time, not that long ago, when a extraordinary event such as Susan Boyle's performance would be difficult or impossible to see and hear, if you didn't catch it the first time around on television. Nowadays, far more people are seeing the event on YouTube than saw it in the first place.
Susan Boyle will likely win the talent contest, but even if she doesn't she'll sell millions of records and have a spectacular career, and all of us will have won as well. She looks like the Statue of Liberty on that stage, a figure from another century, and has a voice for the ages that frees something very real and ever resident in the human spirit.
7 comments:
I couldn't agree more. I've gone to the YouTube site more than once and listened to Susan sing. Not once have I watched it where I didn't tear up just a little. She is a true inspiration to follow your dreams no matter your station in life. She couldn't have picked a more fitting song to sing.
Dear Paul: Agree with all you said. A few additional observations. I think that the appearance variable has a dimension that goes beyond the matter of attractiveness. There was a subtle (well, for Brits, maybe NOT so subtle!) class variable in there, as well. Scotland, the dowdy look, the accent, the mannerisms of the "working class", the dress... Read More, the thumbs-up to off-stage to start the recording: it had everyone ready for Susan to be the "pretender" from the "working class" that had delusions of grandeur.
Except. That she WAS grand. And not just her voice (we all know that). Her grandeur was in her cheery palaver with the judges, her willingness to "take the Mickey" as the Brits have it, her ability to ignore the ironic wolf-whistles and pervasive pre-judgment in the audience. And not. be. annnoyed. Grace under fire: she had it in boatloads.
And I want to imagine that it was even a bit contagious: note when she strides--no: MARCHES--off the stage upon completion the judge named Amanda, wide-eyed that anyone would just LEAVE after such a peformance, sits forward with a very working-class "Oi!" (for readers not familiar, kind of a "hey, what are you doing?" expression). Piers gulping back emotion as he watched, Simon hardly knowing what to do with himself; the crowd spontaneously rising to their feet: it wasn't about her voice. And it wasn't merely about collectively recognizing and repudiating the stereotyping cynicism which had them sneering at her a moment earlier: it was, I think, about her utter lack of prideful triumph. WHY did she walk off that stage without a blink? Because she's stupid? Hell no. Because she doesn't understand the rituals of live performance? Again, no. Was she distracted by what she had just experienced. In part, yes. But above all, she had done what she had come to do. She had no presumptions of acclaim or pretense, and was probably distracted by what she had just experienced. No hubris=a real hero.
The girl can sing, no doubt.
But to mind the real heroes here were the BGT editors. Masterfully cut.
I suspect that the many people who welled up owe the editors an equal amounts of blame.
Good points, all - Adele about the perfect choice of song, Chuck about her being a working class hero (especially significant in the UK), and Kevin about the masterful editing.
Of course, the question with editing always is: does the editing bring out the truth that's already there, or does it point us in a different direction. The vid feels to me as if it's sharpening sharpening reality not creating illusion, but that's exactly what it's supposed to do, too... (I'm talking about the reaction shots here, as was Kevin, not Susan Boyle's talent.)
There is a lot of chatter going on analyzing why Susan is such a phenomenon. Don’t they know angels walk amongst us? True, such are rarely revealed on such a huge stage. I prefer it a lesson on how the Lord sees His children. Imperfect but for the unmistakable stamp He has place on each one. With that special gift we are made complete. I’ve watched that video at least one million times of the 50 million, and counting. Susan is perfect, and she is an angel.
Anon is right.
Susan Boyle is Head Baltar.
Paul: it was a wonderful fairy-tale performance. another glaring example that "judging a book by its cover" will blind us to some beautiful realities.
it wasn't too long ago that an overweight, dentally challenged, shy cellphone salesman by the name of Paul Potts walked onstage and announced to Simon Cowell & Co. that he wanted to sing opera. Paul could be Susan Boyle's musical brother ....
take a listen on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA
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