Britain's Got Talent - Susan Boyle

[Protean]

I don't normally go for these shows, but this clip is too good to pass up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8 ... re=related

[emmline]

Something about her reminds me of Fraulein Schweiger from the Salzburg Festival scene in The Sound of Music...the
soprano who won second place and wouldn't stop bowing at the audience, thus buying the Von Trapp's a few more minutes to escape.

[chrisoff]

I can't get youtube at work, but I'm guessing this is the Glaswegian (or more accurately a collection of villages near Glasgow) woman who was on it at the weekend?

If so, she was ok. Not the best thing on the program that night. For that you need to see Stavros Flatley and Flawless; 2 very different acts that had me speechless for various reasons.

[rebl_rn]

She did great, but this kind of thing bothers me - just like the other guy a couple of years ago who did the opera. Why is it so damn SHOCKING that someone middle aged, someone not very attractive by society standards, someone maybe a little "weird" actually has talent? If she had been a 22 year old buxom blonde who sang the same way would everyone be sending this around the internet saying "Wow, you've got to see this?" I doubt it. The assumptions society makes on appearance only, evidenced so very clearly by this, really really bothers me. Yeah, in the end we all say we love to see the "little guy" do great and silence the big bad critics, but why the assumption beforehand that the little guy is going to suck?

[chrisoff]

If she had been a 22 year old buxom blonde who sang the same way would everyone be sending this around the internet saying "Wow, you've got to see this?" I doubt it.

Are you kidding? Have you not seen the internet?

[izzarina]

I simply adore that song.....in a big way. She sang it wonderfully! And to be 47 and still going after that dream...my hat is off to her. I hope she wins the whole thing.

[fearfaoin]

I can't get youtube at work, but I'm guessing this is the Glaswegian (or more accurately a collection of villages near Glasgow) woman who was on it at the weekend?

It was. I'm glad you put geography to that.
I was going to inquire about her accent.
There is a sort of "don't judge a book by its
cover" thing that's probably going to drive
the virality of this clip.

For that you need to see Stavros Flatley

I thought "Michael Flatley took a greek lover?"
Turns out, that was exactly it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gHvATmUsSg

and Flawless

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aFR6QyVpi0
That's pretty tight. You'll see similar on any
weekend at any of the traditionally black
colleges in the Southeastern U.S.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohoQVj_t4DM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gODn3qG_6M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqyOA9sVbTw

I attended a predominately African-American
high school in Charlotte, NC, and several
clubs were formed there to emulate those
college frats. They would put on step shows
every semester and, though not up to the
college standards, they were a blast to watch.
I prefer when they don't play music, so the
only percussion is from the footstomps, claps,
and the slamming of canes (canes are a common
prop).

[Protean]

I'm rather with Izz on this one. I love the song (one of my favorites from Les Miserables) and the lady just nails it. I know plenty of fantastic singers who aren't attractive , some of them have even made it big (Roy Orbison... seriously, dude was not pleasant to look at), so that really didn't sway my opinion of her in any way. The bizarre hip thrusts did, a bit, though. :p

[fearfaoin]

I love the song (one of my favorites from Les Miserables) and the lady just nails it.

I don't know... she really wusses out on the
low notes. Probably should have transposed
it up a step or so. The emotion she put in
was fairly appropriate, though.

EDIT: You know what? I take that back. I
just listened to Ruthie Henshall's performance
and even she underenergizes the lows a bit.
That number has a heck of a range!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA

Of course, I'm more of an Éponine kinda guy...

[Protean]

Agreed on Éponine. She got a raw deal, methinks. Sweet girl, stepped on the whole program through.

I was fortunate enough to see Les Miserables in London several years ago. The only time I've seen it, but it was amazing. I actually wasn't that familiar w/ it prior to that -- I was a Phantom of the Opera guy. That changed that day.

[izzarina]

I love the song (one of my favorites from Les Miserables) and the lady just nails it.

I don't know... she really wusses out on the
low notes. Probably should have transposed
it up a step or so. The emotion she put in
was fairly appropriate, though.

EDIT: You know what? I take that back. I
just listened to Ruthie Henshall's performance
and even she underenergizes the lows a bit.
That number has a heck of a range!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA

Of course, I'm more of an Éponine kinda guy...

She did have a hard time on the lower notes. But, like you said, that song is meant for someone with a HUGE range. Kind of like Memory from Cats...it has a lot of big notes in the higher register, but it also has a fair share of the low. That's part of what makes the whole song so amazing (in my opinion...I love stuff like that). And that's why I was so taken aback by her performance. Sure, she could have been stronger on the low notes, but the fact that she even got a piece of them is something worth writing home about. Most singers now-a-days couldn't even come close. It's really not an easy one to sing, so while it wasn't flawless, she still did a tremendous job.

[Protean]

Oh man... I just watched the Stavros Flatley video. That was hilarious.

[Denny]

The Stavros Flatley video belongs on the Irish Trad Music forum!

[taity]

she is from the same village as me Blackburn in west lothian .
she sure did shock them all well done

[peeplj]

This all comes down to movies and television, and the prejudices that they reinforce.

From our earliest years, we are shown again and again that attractive people are smart and talented, and people who aren't as attractive are of less intelligence, or mean-spirited, or unskilled. The only good thing unattractive people are good for, in the world of entertainment, is to be laughed at, or perhaps pitied.

I enjoy seeing shows which buck the stereotype, and I hope that someday perhaps people will learn that what someone looks like is actually the very least revealing thing that you can possibly know about them.

Maybe, just maybe, episodes like this one can help bring that day closer.

--James