I haven’t written anything about Susan Boyle, who is doing to Britain’s Got Talent what Paul Potts did last year. That’s not out of any malice. I’ve just seen so many other bloggers writing about her, that I figured why pile on?
But I would like to pass on a few links. I do recommend that you take a listen to her rather stunning first-round performance here. You will be surprised by her voice. I don’t think she has Potts’ chops or musicality, so I don’t expect her to win it all, but I like to see musicians get ahead whose burning desire is to be a musician and not merely a star.
Which is why I don’t watch American Idol.
Little Miss Attilla, Joy McCann, has a very good writeup with plenty of links about Miss Boyle and I recommend it to you. I don’t imagine that anything better about her could be written at this point.
Tags: Little Miss Attilla, Music, Susan Boyle
I honestly don’t think she’s as amazing as many people think she is. She’s good, yes. But she’s not deserving of all of this praise and adulation.
I think she deserves the praise for being a damned good person. She shorted herself a lot of living to take care of her loved ones and has lived, by all accounts, a solid and uncomplaining life while doing so. That’s worth some spotlight. That she can sing is icing on the cake.
Praise for being a good person is all well and fine. There are far too many good people on this Earth who don’t get the praise they deserve. But that’s not what she’s being praised for. She’s being praised for her singing voice, which is fine but not praise-worthy. That’s all I’m saying.
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On her singing voice, I certainly agree. She’s good but not quite that good (certainly not as good as Paul Potts). But I won’t quibble too badly if an otherwise good person gets a few more kudos.
I think you’re both overlooking the real story here – which is people think your ability is related to your physical appearance. Homely people are considered to be handicapped – simply because they’re homely.
People expected a less than stellar performance because of how she looks – they thought that they’d just applaud politely. Then they discovered that she was _good_…and that shocked them into overenthusiasm. I do agree that as good as she is she probably isn’t the absolutely most mostest singer on earth, but she _is_ good. The problem is that if you listen to her and close your eyes, your brain visualizes a very pretty woman. Then you open your eyes and it’s a bit of a shock.
It’s a failing on our part – this linking of physical appearance and performance expectancy, but I don’t think it’s likely to change.
I’m not overlooking that in the least, suek. In fact, that’s my argument over the reaction she’s now getting. People had lowered expectations of her based on her appearance and people are now overly praising her for exactly the same reason … “I never would have guess that such a voice could come from such a person”. I see it all the time at the karaoke I host.
There is a good tenor to her voice. It’s pleasant on the ears. But she pushes her vibrato too hard; at least it sounds forced … artificial … to me. Her voice is middle-of-the-pack, small-stage-musical-theater good. But it’s not international-morning-media good.