Scottish woman on 'Britain's Got Talent' becomes YouTube sensation

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A Scottish woman, appearing as a contestant on the UK television reality show Britain's Got Talent, has stunned audiences around the globe. Her appearance, which can be seen on YouTube, shocked the show's judges and the theatre audience.

47-year-old Susan Boyle from Blackburn, West Lothian, in Scotland, made her debut appearance on the show on Saturday night by saying that she had "never been married, never been kissed" and was currently unemployed, living alone at home with her cat, Pebbles. She says that she wants to "be a professional singer", but has "never been given the chance." Audience members and judges Amanda Holden, Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan, first laughed and even poked fun at her.

Boyle then stunned the judges and audience, getting a standing ovation, with her performance of I Dreamed a Dream from the award winning musical performance Les Misérables. Cowell called her performance "extraordinary" while Morgan called it "the biggest surprise I've had in three years of this show. I am shocked." Holden even admitted that "everyone was against you [Boyle]" and that "we were all being very cynical."

People from around the globe have also gotten a glimpse of her performance. As of April 15, after just four days, her performance has been viewed over 9,000,000 times on YouTube, becoming YouTube's most 'popular' video, and the most viewed of the week. Within 48 hours, she already had a fan site on the world wide web. Boyle's performance is also currently the top search result on Google's search engine when entering the song title.

It is not yet known when Boyle will appear next on the show. Assuming she qualifies for the latter stages, her second performance is likely to be aired in late May — there are 25 episodes in the season, and so far only two episodes have aired. The show is in its third season.

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Sources

Learn more about Britain's Got Talent on Wikipedia.

"Scottish woman unlikely song star" — The Age, April 15, 2009
Associated Press. "Middle-aged Scottish woman is unlikely song star" — The Philippine Star, April 15, 2009
John Scott Lewinski. "Unlikely U.K. Singing Star Susan Boyle Takes YouTube by Storm" — Wired News, April 14, 2009
Britain's Got talent. "Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009" — YouTube, April 11, 2009

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