Susan Boyle: I dreamed a dream!

[Migs]

Apparently, not since you clicked on this thread 6+ times in less than 24 hours.

but my responses and such were moslty geared to what jags posted.

[danielson]

I don't like that particular song, but I was amazed by her voice. Personally I liked Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma(sp?) better, but that's probably because I enjoy the song more. Cool story though and a very good singer.

[Princess L]

 

Absolutely stunning!

[24KT]

YouTube sensation singer invited on 'Oprah'
Fri Apr 17, 5:55 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A Scottish charity worker who became an Internet star after her performance on a British talent contest has been invited to appear on Oprah Winfrey's chat show, officials said Friday.

A spokesman for "Oprah" confirmed to AFP that Susan Boyle, 47, had caught the attention of the Chicago-based television mogul Winfrey and was being lined up as a guest. The spokesman could not confirm when Boyle might appear.

By Thursday, a video clip of Boyle's singing debut on the "Britain's Got Talent" television show last weekend has received more than 19 million views on YouTube, with the number rising fast.

US actress Demi Moore was apparently moved to tears by the clip, while the story was been picked up around the world, with US, Australian and other broadcasters reportedly queuing up for interviews.

In the clip, the down-to-earth Boyle walked on stage, saying she dreamed of emulating West End star Elaine Page.

When she began to sing, the panel of three judges led by music guru Simon Cowell appeared visibly taken aback, and the audience in Glasgow rose to its feet as her voiced soared through "I Dreamed A Dream" from "Les Miserables."

[24KT]

I don't like that particular song, but I was amazed by her voice. Personally I liked Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma(sp?) better, but that's probably because I enjoy the song more. Cool story though and a very good singer.

You spelled it right.    Yes, it's a beautiful song

Andrea Bocelli sings Nessun Dorma:

[BayGBM]

Before it even happened critics were trashing her potential makeover.  Did they expect here to wear that frumpy dress forever?  To never have her hair combed or professionally styled?  I say good for her... she looks great and is ready to take the theatre by storm! 

[BayGBM]

Yes, Looks Do Matter
By PAM BELLUCK

FOR more than a week now, people on both sides of the Atlantic have been using the story of Susan Boyle — the dowdy Scottish spinster who sang her way to fame on “Britain’s Got Talent” TV show — as an example of just how shallow we’ve become.

Before she sang, Ms. Boyle seemed to be merely a frumpy 47-year-old unemployed church volunteer who lived alone with her cat, Pebbles, and had, she said, “never been kissed” (a claim that she later took back).

Now, after the video of her performance went viral, a flurry of commentary has focused on how we stereotype people into categories, how we fall victim to the prejudices of ageism or look-ism, and how we should learn, once and for all, not to judge books by their covers.

But many social scientists and others who study the science of stereotyping say there are reasons we quickly size people up based on how they look. Snap judgments about people are crucial to the way we function, they say — even when those judgments are very wrong.

They would even agree with Ms. Boyle herself, who said after her performance that while society is too quick to judge people by appearance, “There is not much you can do about it; it is the way they think; it is the way they are.”

On a very basic level, judging people by appearance means putting them quickly into impersonal categories, much like deciding whether an animal is a dog or a cat. “Stereotypes are seen as a necessary mechanism for making sense of information,” said David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University. “If we look at a chair, we can categorize it quickly even though there are many different kinds of chairs out there.”

Eons ago, this capability was of life-and-death importance, and humans developed the ability to gauge other people within seconds...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/fashion/26looks.html?em

[Princess L]

Another sensational performance!

[Parker]

Actually this is life imitating art...on the cartoon "Recess" the really fat kid has a Opera quality voice, yet you think that he didn't

[Migs]

i'm sick of it all

[BayGBM]

i'm sick of it all

You've said that twice already yet you keep coming back.  Why do you pay so much attention to things you are ostensibly sick of? 

[Migs]

trying to up my post count lol.

[BayGBM]

Album review: Susan Boyle's 'I Dreamed a Dream'

Since she first raised her arms in what now seems like a blessing on the talent show "Britain's Got Talent," revealing herself as the new queen of pop's Island of Misfit Toys, Susan Boyle has come to mean several things to her fans: hope, the triumph of the ordinary, the reality-television embodiment of the Euro-American Dream. As a singer, though, she offers something else: relief.

Boyle's clear but warm tone and stolid phrasing turns everything it touches into a more songful version of New Age music. It's relaxing to listen to those drawn-out syllables, gradually building toward a gentle, wavelike climax. Boyle possesses neither an impulse to swing nor an ounce of the blues; whether she's covering the Monkees, the Rolling Stones or Madonna, Boyle sings like she's in a place of worship, surrounded by white walls and soft light, cooking up some chicken soup for the soul.

Her unearthly calm and gently piercing timbre are her best qualities. It's what makes her version of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" so touching. Instead of Mick Jagger's moaning, slightly derisive take on heartache, hers is truly resigned, the sound of someone who really understands and accepts life's limitations.
Maybe that's why the sadder songs on her album are the best. Boyle taps into the melancholy, if not the sexy languor, of Julie London on "Cry Me a River" and gives a beautiful reading of Skeeter Davis' heartbreakingly polite "The End of the World." There's a lonesomeness to these versions that's almost startling, especially compared with the overwrought emotionalism of many younger pop stars.

The same mood doesn't work on "Daydream Believer," which should have more pep, or the more current (and blander) compositions "Who I Was Born to Be" and "Proud."

Boyle is perfectly comfortable singing actual hymns like "Amazing Grace," though her take on them is pretty much on a level with any local church's choir star. She's at her worst when she pushes harder; she doesn't know how to build drama, and her throat seems to constrict as she reaches for bigger notes.

While the material on this collection provides some interest, other possibilities for Boyle's particular gift tantalize. What would David Lynch, whose films (and soundtracks) always find the strange underbelly of the seemingly bland, do with her? Boyle seems up for new challenges. I'd like to see her take a trip up Mulholland Drive.

-- Ann Powers
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/11/album-review-susan-boyles-i-dreamed-a-dream.html

[Princess L]

I'm not going to run out and buy the album, but I do think she has an incredible voice.  I love her rendition of Wild Horses.  I would def. pay to hear her live.  I'm very happy for her success.

[Migs]

nevermind

[24KT]

I'm not going to run out and buy the album, but I do think she has an incredible voice.  I love her rendition of Wild Horses.  I would def. pay to hear her live.  I'm very happy for her success.

me too 

[Original Sin]

I think she is good but I won't buy her album nor would I pay to see her live.  worth a torrent download though

She is like Stephen King....
Great for the masses but boring and unimaginative to the knowledgeable.  (he said it about himself, I didn't)

But she isn't in Sarah Brightman's or Hayley Westenra's league.
And a true Opera Diva, not even close.