Susan Boyle

Afternoon, April 14, Tuesday. I took a logical break from work and checked what's trending in Twitter. People are twittering about "24". I clicked. Immediately I was bombarded with spoilers from the latest episode, which I planned to watch that evening. The episode was spoiled, but the spoilers made me anticipate watching the episode even more. After checking out other familiar stuffs that are trending in Twitter, I went on (like I usually do) to check the unfamiliar trends, things that don't ring a bell. One of those trends that afternoon was "Susan Boyle", a 47-year old hopeful in the regional auditions for Britain's Got Talent and in the tweets are links to the same Youtube video. Video streaming is blocked at work. So I sent an email to my personal email account containing the link to the video so that I could check it when I went home. "Susan Boyle" wasn't really trending very high then, and I figured she wouldn't be trending anymore by the time I check twitter trends at home. I couldn't have predicted how unnecessary that was. It's Saturday already and "Susan Boyle" is still one of the top trends in Twitter.

That audition clip, uploaded to Youtube, which as I wrote this has 19.6 million views, was truly one of a kind. It got all the elements working for it: Susan Boyle's life story and the perfect song choice. I have seen my fair share of American Idol episodes, and in that type of competition, song choice often made or break you. Boyle couldn't have chosen a better song to sing in that audition. She was there in the auditions to try to lived her dream of becoming a professional singer. And she chose to sing I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Lés Miserables. The orchestral accompaniment, which the editors have used as background music in the post-audition interview and the "three yesses" and then in Boyle's exit of the stage, where she blew a kiss to the audience was perfect. All these elements coming in together made for some very dramatic moments that rivaled any scripted TV. It's the best feel-good moment I have seen from any reality series or competition so far (at least from those that I watched).

Of course, song choice was just one factor. She still had to have the voice. And her voice was amazing. Some people would say it was nothing extraordinary. That maybe, she herself admitted on television that there's room for improvement, but I have heard several versions since I watched her Youtube clip, and her's is still the best that I have heard. A recording she made in 1999 for her local town's charity cd (only a thousand copies were produced), in which she sang Cry Me A River surfaced on Youtube recently. And it, too, was brilliant. I could just imagine what it would have been like if she was "discovered" at the age of 20. She would have by now 27 years of singing career under her belt. She would probably have been one of the judges in Britain's Got Talent. Although, considering how beautiful her voice still is at 47, she'd probably be busy touring the world to judge a talent competition.