Susan Boyle And Great Britain (Guest Voice)

Susan Boyle And Great Britain

by Dalitso Njolinjo

Part of me is happy for Susan Boyle’s world wide viral success and part of me is dreading what the video on YouTube will tell the world about Great Britain.

Although Susan’s moment might have been a life changing experience for her, it really did not capture ‘Britain’ (and myself) at its best.

Like the audience, when I saw Susan Boyle enter the stage I thought, ‘Oh no, not another disaster story’. I mean, you have seen them a dozen times on reality talent contests. An ‘out of sorts’ character who is portrayed as being ‘odd’ has a seemingly improbable dream of being a singer. She is adamant that she has the ‘X-Factor’ only to be told by the judges and the audience that she is in fact below average.

Well, what happened with Susan Boyle was the very extreme of this scenario. The above usually involves one critical aspect, the audience and the judge give the contestant the benefit of the doubt and judge her after the performance.

Susan looked odd, was a virgin in her 40’s and her closest companion was a cat that the audience (which included myself watching at home) and the judges (Simon Cowell rolling his eyes) dismissed and laughed off this woman without giving her a chance. All because she did not look like Liona Lewis or any other modern day celebrity and she didn’t live a social life of an ordinary person.

Now Ms Boyle is an international phenomenon, we find ourselves applauding her like she represents all that is good about Britain, and by applauding her we are really applauding ourselves, trying to reassure ourselves that we are actually a kind nation where women like Susan Boyle get the chance to shine. The way her story is being pushed over her talents also shows how hollow the praise for this woman is, are we captivated by her talent or is this charitable media coverage? Coverage that can make the whole country feel better about it self after what they put Ms Boyle through.

Well the dirty secret is this, Susan Boyle is 47 years old, she is a better singer that damn near 90% of females in the charts right now and it took a reality show in its 3rd year before she got her chance to shine. And even then she had to injure the barrage of insults from the audience members and the judges. It is also my personal opinion that there are a lot more Susan Boyles out there, being laughed at by the ‘normal’ in our society and too shy to pursue their dreams.

Even if she does win Britain’s Got Talent, I am not convinced that my Image obsessed country will look past its shallowness and support this woman past this seasons cycle. I really do hope that I am proved wrong.

But it comes down to this, for the first 2 minutes before Ms Boyle sang, I laughed and mocked Ms Boyle like everyone in that audience. I was wrong and for that I am truly sorry.

But I am also aware that this could very well happen again.

Another Susan Boyle could appear next year and could seem as ‘weird’ as Susan, how will I react then?

Dalitso Njolinjo lives in Northamptonshire, England. He is an aspiring writer and communications consultant. He writes that he “enjoys all things politics, sports and French. The ungodly trinity.” He also writes on his own blog.