BOYLE MANIA

Susan Boyle,the Scotswoman who is the latest Internet phenomenon for her performance of I Dreamed a Dream on Britain’s Got Talent,looked a little too ridiculous in that much-watched clip. That dress—it looked vintage,but like vintage from her mum’s closet. Could this be John Cleese’s latest cross-dressing foray? It had all the earmarks of Monty Python. An unmarried lady. Of a certain age. From Scotland. With a funny accent. Wiggly hips. An abstracted air. A cat named Pebbles. I knew it: Susan Boyle was Basil Fawlty in one of Sybil’s more outre outfits.
But strangely,Boyle’s virginity and double chin and piano legs and fright-wig hair and bad fashion worked for her: One thing to look like Beyonce and sing like a honey,another to look like Maude or Hazel or Roseanne and sing as if God had taken you over. The human mind loves contrast; the human mind loves a surprise.

Susan Boyle knew just what she was doing. She began to sing. It was quite a moment. It was a song about wasted youth and lost dreams,a choice made by a singer who knew exactly what she should sing. It was like the dying Piaf singing Non,Je ne Regrette Rien. And yet,painfully,as we were moved by the singer and the song,we were also forced to watch the reaction shots of the audience and of Amanda,the perfect-haired,sleeveless,highly “dateable” judge,whose pouts and warm surprise and welling tears filled almost as much screen time as Boyle’s astounding performance.

“We are too cynical,” Amanda said,addressing Boyle after her performance. “Everyone was rooting against you.”

Boyle sang,and shrugged her shoulders and tossed her gray locks,and now we were changed,changed utterly by this transforming performance. But instead of changing us,Boyle’s explosion into fame is much more likely to change her. Already she has appeared on Scottish television with her hair seemingly darkened and somehow forced into submission. Please please please,Susan! The vintage women of the world beg you: Don’t lose a pound. Don’t buy a new wardrobe. No highlights! No Botox! Don’t touch chin one,or chin two. Remember Ella Fitzgerald,and just keep singing.
Wilentz is the author of I Feel Earthquakes More Often Than They Happen,a book on the state of California.
_Amy Wilentz,LATWP

Blackburn,Scotland: A place she calls home

Before fame came to town,before all the satellite trucks and fans that come with overnight stardom,Susan Boyle could walk her world in five minutes. She’s never had a driver’s license,never really needed one in this little cuddle of a Scottish village of 5,000 where she has lived in the same rented house since she was born.
From her rusted green front gate,she needed only her now-famous sensible shoes to get to the store and to her Catholic church. It’s just paces to the Happy Valley Hotel pub,a lively spot with plaid carpet where she has often sat by herself,sipping lemonade at her favourite table next to the dart board,waiting her turn at karaoke.

“We would see her five or six times a day. She walked everywhere. Everyone knows her,” said Michelle McCabe,a preschool teaching aide who lives across the street from Boyle in this former coal mining village.
A sniffy publicist hired by the TV programme that made her a star now stands guard at her door,trying to control the images feeding the global Boylemania—and the show’s expanding coffers. Boyle has had offers for movies and record deals. She has talked to US television gabbers Larry King and Diane Sawyer.

She reached a rare pinnacle of American culture when Jay Leno put on a wig and dress and did his best Susan Boyle—and everyone in the audience knew exactly whom he meant.

Photographers,standing outside Boyle’s home,have offered $3,000 for a single old family photo of her. Clothing designers have called,offering to lavish new outfits upon her. In a nod to those sepia days when communication happened without email,old-fashioned snail mail is arriving in a growing torrent,some of it addressed merely to “Susan Boyle,Scotland”.

Saturday night,Boyle answered the door at her home and smiled graciously and talked about being surprised at the interest in her in the US,and of how—”No,no,no”—she wouldn’t have a makeover,as some have suggested. Then the publicist appeared from the other room and declared that there was a “news blackout”.
At the Happy Valley,sitting underneath signs pasted to the wall congratulating her and wishing her luck,Boyle’s brother John said he thinks his sister’s “fairy-tale story” has hit a chord because of “all the gloom and doom” in these troubled economic times.

The youngest of nine children,Susan Boyle looked after her mother,Bridget,until she died two years ago at 91.
She has never had a boyfriend,and her closest friends describe her as shy and quirky. Villagers said she has never held a job and has a mild learning disability that resulted from a lack of oxygen at birth.
Mary Jordan,LATWP

The Internet is her stage
Susan Boyle’s online popularity is headed straight to the history books. The video of Boyle’s performance in Britain’s Got Talent set the record for the number of views in a week— and shows no sign of slowing down. According to Visible Measures,which tracks videos from YouTube,MySpace and other video-sharing sites,all Boyle-oriented videos—including clips of her television interviews and her recently-released rendition of Cry Me a River,recorded 10 years ago for a charity CD—have generated a total of 85.2 million views. Nearly 20 million of those views came overnight. Boyle’s Wikipedia entry has attracted over 500,000 page views since it was created. Her Facebook fan page is flooded with comments from over a million members. Indeed,the sleepless Internet is her round-the-clock stage,and the 47-year-old who has said she’s never heard of YouTube is the Web’s hottest entertainer.
LATWP