Much has already been written and said about the unlikely Scottish sensation that is The Legend of Lothian, Susan Boyle, and I doubt that I can add to the sheer tonnage of eloquence and analysis that has flowed forth in the wake of her fateful audition in Glasgow last Saturday. I sheepishly confess that I've probably watched the Youtube clip about ten times in the past five or six days, and it's only in the last twenty-fours that I can get through it without getting misty-eyed and choked up.
It is the most transcendently inspiring thing that I've seen this year (I know that we're all supposed to say Obamanon's inauguration was the most moving moment of 2009 , but no, for me it's Boyle...), and for that matter, it's the most genuinely, thrillingly, inspiring thing that I've seen in years.
When I first watched the clip I was cringing for this poor woman who I was sure was about to crash and burn before an openly jeering audience and visibly contemptuous judges, her meager dignity and self-esteem splattered all over Her Majesty's Telly...
And then, she opened her mouth...and in approximately four seconds she had knocked the entire jaded lot of them on their ass...a crowd that could not have been more vicious when she first walked on stage abruptly erupting in adulation before the onslaught of her thermonuclear talent...the facial expressions of each of the judges in that moment, stunned, then rapturous, utterly priceless...
What followed is the stuff of folklore, only this time there is celluloid evidence...
What resonates with me about The Boyle Moment, the reason that it grabbed me by the throat, is that it represents the triumph of true, undeniable ABILITY in the face of staggering preconceptions and prejudices...The most sturdy SUBSTANCE prevailing over meretricious style...with a vengance. The victory of raw, unadulterated, ungroomed, untutored TALENT over the most cruel doubt and dismissal. Susan Boyle may have a face for radio, but she has the voice of an archangel, and if there is divine intervention in human affairs, her performance on a silly British TV show was the Almighty reaching down and backhanding a culture besotted with the superficial and ultimately irrelevant.
Many have remarked in the past few days that Boyle is The Cat Lady made good...On the contrary, she reminds me of somebody who would have been calming frightened children in a bomb shelter during The Blitz...But then again, we are a world comfortably removed from such testing times...
It is supremely heartening to know that in a world as image-obsessed as ours, we still possess the capacity to recognize and be awed by the appearance of true ability, regardless of the appearance of the vessel containing that talent. Perhaps that is why in spite of my loathing for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Simon Cowell I find The Boyle Moment to be so truly momentous...
Joe Ercoli on April 18, 2009 at 9:16 AM
Susan reminds me of another that seemed to be facing the wrath of Simon, but made his jaw drop in the first few moments of his performance. Check out this video of Paul Potts on the same show. Another bit of walking proof that talent sometimes comes in less attractive packages.