Susan Boyle

Saturday April 11, 2009 was the first show in the third season of Britain's Got Talent. That was when viewers first met Susan Boyle.

Not living in the UK myself, I hadn't seen the show until the 14th. And I never would have had I not seen a link to a YouTube video on a message board I frequent. I didn't know what I was clicking over to see, just that it was unbelievable.

You HAVE to watch this performance, and I'm sure we will be hearing a lot of Susan in the weeks and months ahead. I got a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye, and have watched it again and again.

On Saturday May 23rd Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan announced that Susan Boyle is one of the 40 acts going on to the semi-finals. She performed Sunday the 24th in the first of five live semi-final shows. Susan sang "Memory" from the musical Cats. I thought she started out a bit shaky but she pulled through as she went on. Susan Boyle won the public vote and moved on to the finals.

Congrats to Susan Boyle!

On Saturday May 30th, singing I Dreamed A Dream for a second time, she placed 2nd on BGT.

Watch Susan's semi-final and final performance.

Wild Horses is a track from her new album I Dreamed A Dream.

Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention when she appeared as a contestant on reality TV programme Britain's Got Talent on 11 April 2009, singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables. Her first album was released in November 2009 and debuted as the number one best-selling CD on charts around the globe.

Global interest in Boyle was triggered by the contrast between her powerful mezzo-soprano voice and her plain appearance on stage. The juxtaposition of the audience's first impression of her, with the standing ovation she received during and after her performance, led to an international media and internet response...

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer

Music by Claude-Michel Schonberg

Sung by the character Fantine

I dreamed a dream in time gone by

When hope was high

And life worth living

I dreamed that love would never die

I dreamed that God would be forgiving

Then I was young and unafraid

And dreams were made and used and wasted

There was no ransom to be paid

No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night

With their voices soft as thunder

As they tear your hope apart

And they turn your dream to shame

And still I dream he'll come to me

That we will live our lives together

But there are dreams that cannot be

And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I'm living

So different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.

Lyrics by Trevor Nunn

Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber

Sung by the character Grizabella

Midnight, not a sound from the pavement

Has the moon lost her memory?

She is smiling alone

In the lamplight the withered leaves collect at my feet

And the wind begins to moan

Every streetlamp seems to beat a fatalistic warning

Someone mutters

And the streetlamp gutters

And soon it will be morning

Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise

I must think of a new life

And I mustn't give in

When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too

And a new day will begin

Touch me, it's so easy to leave me

All alone with the memory

Of my days in the sun

If you touch me you'll understand what happiness is

Look a new day has begun

• Birthday: April 1st 1961
• Youngest of 9 siblings
• Started singing when she was 5
• Started singing in choirs at 12
• Grew up in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland
• She's Catholic
• Pets: A 10-year-old cat named Pebbles
• Her favorite drink is lemonade
• She's never been married or left her family home
• She took care of her widowed mother until her passing in 2007

April 13, 2009

It's been quite a weekend for BGT sensation Susan Boyle.

The 47 year-old singer, who delighted everyone with her powerful performance of I Dreamed A Dream from Les Mis on Saturday's show, hasn't let stardom go to her head.

Instead she turned up for church as usual on Easter Sunday morning, reportedly receiving rapturous applause from her friends in the congregation.

She said, "It was incredible. Although we sing in church not a lot of them know how good I was, so it was a bit of a shock for them".

"Everyone is very nice and it's lovely when all the kids stop me in the street to congratulate me."

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