|
|
Post by Richard on Jun 2, 2009 14:45:56 GMT
Hello everybody.
I deleted the most recent post in this thread. Now the 2009 series of Britain's Got Talent has ended, I feel we should all respect Susan Boyle's privacy.
Many thanks,
Richard
|
|
|
|
Post by nicola on Jun 2, 2009 17:19:34 GMT
I'm sorry to hear that it was deleted. It was more a social commentary than on Susan's private life. I think Jeff made some good points. I read a similar opinion in The Guardian. I have forgotten who's column it was though.  I would expand on the topic, but I see it's not to be discussed. All I have left to say is good luck to Diversity on their Royal Variety performance.  |
|
|
|
Post by Richard on Jun 3, 2009 7:24:32 GMT
Hello Nicola and everybody. I'm reinstating the deleted post following discussions with the Management Team, but now the series is over, please keep any further discussion in this thread to a minimum. Richard Susan Boyle has learning difficulties which makes her manipulation and exploitation by Simon Cowell and his media friends all the more contemptible. I don't object to Susan Boyle, she has a decent enough voice to make a living out of singing and is as entitled to do so as anyone else. Good luck to her. I wish her well. People with worse voices than her have made fortunes from a gullible public. What I object to is the way she has been handled and hyped to a ridiculous degree. Watch her reaction when that fool Piers Morgan tells her she has just given the best singing performance in the history of the show. She hides her face and makes a guillotine motion with her hand. She must surely know in her own mind she is incapable of living up to such ridiculous praise and that has to have increased her stress and anxiety. Faryl Smith (wise beyond her years) said recently there is more to being a singer than singing. It's jet lag, hotels, cameras in your face, everyone wanting a piece of you. One wonders if Susan will be able to cope with that or indeed if she knew what she was letting herself in for at the outset. Sadly it now appears her fragile mental state will be exposed to the full glare of the world's media. As she lies in a psychiatric clinic (paid for by BGT I hope) Mr Cowell is no doubt aboard his private jet, hunting down another star, or should that be victim ? Once she recovers an album is to be recorded in the Czech Republic. Why the Czech Republic ? Because musicians' wages there are lower than the UK. That clever Mr Cowell thinks of everything !  |
|
Dave
Administrator
HWI Admin
Posts: 7,700
|
Post by Dave on Jun 4, 2009 16:11:37 GMT
Hello Richard, Nicola, Jeff and everyone, I don't wish to continue the discussion about Susan Boyle unecessarily but today, there has been a significant development. Mencap, the largest UK charity for people with Learning Disabilities, has issued an official statement entitled: More support needed for singing star Susan Boyle which I urge anyone who is interested to read in full. The statement confirms that Susan has a Learning Disability caused by birth asphyxia and Mencap would not have said so unless it was a) known to be correct and b) Susan and/or or her representative had agreed to it. This is not press speculation, it's fact... which is why I've mentioned it.As a parent of an adult child with a learning disability, albeit a little more serious than Susan's appears to be, I can see clearly the signs of this in Susan, as shown by her unusual behaviour at times in the TV series, and in the subsequent effect on her personal life. And following the enlightening statement by Mencap, my attitude towards her has completely changed. It is tempting to say that someone with a learning disability should never have been allowed on such a show, however, the following comments by Mencap have made me rethink even that:
“Some people have suggested that people like Susan Boyle who have a learning disability should be stopped from going on ‘Britain's Got Talent’. This would mean denying 1.5 million people with a learning disability in the UK the chance to take part and have the same opportunities as everyone else. This makes no sense and is discriminatory. Shows like ‘Britain's Got Talent’ are great because they are accessible for everyone”
Whether or not, after the savaging she's had from the press recently, Susan is able to regain her confidence sufficiently to go on tour and do concerts in the future is of course not yet known but I hope she does. Either way, there seems to be no reason why, with the right level of continuous support, she shouldn't make and release classical crossover-type albums and from that, have a career that she and all the other people with a learning disability could hitherto only dream about. Yes, I've heard better singers, although she's certainly very good, however my attitude towards her has now completely changed from ambivalence to support. I think the chance she now has is absolutey marvellous and I hope she comes through her present difficulties able to continue in some way with her career, and with the level of support that she needs and deserves. Cheers, Dave |
|
|
|
Post by grant on Jun 4, 2009 17:44:16 GMT
Hi Dave and everyone
Many thanks for your very informative post and the Mencap link. I had heard it said that Susan has 'learning difficulties' but for me that could mean many things, so I didn't think much of it.
Unlike a huge number of people, I only watched the last five minutes of the thirty minute programme where they announced the results and I thought then that Susan was behaving in a rather strange manner.
It must be a huge shock to the system for anyone one minute living a quiet and normal life to suddenly find they have fifty million fans!
I wish her well and hope she is able to make the most of her opportunity.
Best wishes
Grant
|
|
|
|
Post by Richard on Jun 5, 2009 7:26:20 GMT
Thanks for that, Dave. It will be interesting to see if Susan Boyle takes part in the live tour of Britain's Got Talent, which kicks off at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham next Friday. Click here[/u] for full details of the tour. Richard |
|
|
|
Post by Richard on Jun 5, 2009 7:44:08 GMT
|
|
Martin
Global Moderator
HWI Management Team
Posts: 3,339
|
Post by Martin on Jun 5, 2009 8:20:31 GMT
Interesting comments, Richard. Connie Talbot was even younger.  Martin |
|
|
|
Post by enzian on Jun 5, 2009 8:31:44 GMT
Susan has left the clinic so it was indeed only exhaustion and probably anxiety at the thought that she had lost her dream of making an album and a singing career by coming second. Perhaps she was afraid the ridicule she suffered at home through certain people would begin again. She said in her VT, she wanted people to 'see she is a worthwhile person and can do something' she wanted 'to be able to walk down the street and feel good about who she is'.
Susan had been relentlessly pursued by the world's press for 7 weeks, and the UK press turned against her in the last week. Few could have handled it. The show did all they could, but the world-wide level of interest in Susan was unprecedented and difficult to control. She was harrassed by the press at the hotel all week and in hindsight maybe they should have put her somewhere else at a secret location. But this would have been seen as special attention over the others - it was a difficult situation.
Luckily Susan is now fine and will make her album and have her singing career in some form, I doubt if she wants to be a big star. I think she shouldn't go on the tour. It is stressful and exhausting. In addition, a part of the audience in the final and the last semi-final seemed to be against her, at least they booed when Piers, one of the judges, expressed his support and wish for a Susan win - they cheered when he supported another act. This probably threw her too, she needs 100% support when she next sings.
I agree that if she has learning problems, they must be very mild. Sometimes her behaviour seems excentric, but this isn't necessarily abnormal.
She looks fine too, I do not understand what the press and some people are seeing. She looked good in the first audition, lovely when she sang - and you see people like that every day, in fact most have her level of looks. She looked lovely in the semi-final. I didn't like the dress in the final. But I hope she can get that sparkle of the first audition back now that the competition is over and can enjoy singing again.
But she will be an inspiration to others in her situation and show them that they can achieve things too and overcome the bullies.
|
|
|
|
Post by grant on Jun 5, 2009 10:34:52 GMT
Hi Martin Interesting comments, Richard. Connie Talbot was even younger. Martin Yes, but I think you have to take into account what the ambitions are for each one. To Hollie it clearly meant the world but I believe her 'world' was much different to Connie's. Connie just wanted to sing for Simon Cowell, she didn't focus beyond that because she treated singing as a fun thing to do, I hope she still does. Best wishes Grant |
|
|
|
Post by Elliot Kane on Jun 5, 2009 20:11:27 GMT
No doubt that Faryl has a very wise head on her young shoulders. I suspect she'll be fine.
Susan - yes, the attention was utterly unprecedented and there's no way anyone could have been prepared for that. Must take quite some adjusting. Hopefully, she'll now go on to do well.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jeff on Jun 6, 2009 11:19:27 GMT
Might sound strange to say this but coming second was probably the best thing that could have happened to her and it won't affect her eventual career one jot. Finishing fifth never hurt Faryl.
|
|
|
|
Post by Elliot Kane on Jun 6, 2009 15:24:14 GMT
I agree. Of all the BGT 2 acts, Faryl seems to be doing the best. She's certainly the only one who is still in the papers regularly and her album outsold those of her rivals.
Just goes to show that the voting audience and the buying audience are not always in tune.
It also makes a huge difference when the majority of the act's fanbase (As with Susan) are overseas and not able to vote.
|
|
|
|
Post by postscript on Jun 8, 2009 18:55:58 GMT
Thanks Dave.
I think your interjection helps to bring a sobering objectivity to the whole. Piers Morgan also gave a rational review of the way the event is managed in the Mail on Sunday (ran for three full pages os mostly text) as well as touching on the facts involving Susan. It seems the event's management team have provided all the support we would hope and expect and that such support is pre-empted across the board for everyone taking part.
In terms of assessing Susan's talent, I understand your drift but would observe 'horses for courses'. If you are looking across the whole field of music than such a view must recognise that some of us here have been privileged to know we have heard some of the best voices available in the world today. With that as the 'top' level, Susan provides a competent rendition at professional level. Then, taking into account solely her age and her 'road to stardom', we can say without doubt that she has achieved superbly well, for which one can only wish her well and affirm she probably has a successful professional life ahead of her.
In terms of her capturing the American public (yet to be proved by sales of a cd) one can only conclude there is an element of society to which she clearly appeals and good luck to her. I think her talent has definable parameters which I am not going to presume to prescribe. Within those definitions I am sure she will be seen as very good.
Peter S.
|
|
|
|
Post by martindn on Jun 8, 2009 21:59:06 GMT
I think the element of surprise is a very powerful one, and that Susan's impact in BGT was made more powerful by the fact that nobody expected her to have a voice like that.
If I think about it, it is exactly the same trick that Hayley pulled on me the first time I heard her. She was ust a tiny little girl, and didn't look much like a singer that would have a great voice, and I expected a pale imitation of Charlotte Church, so when I heard how spectacular Hayley's voice was, I was blown away all the more. And I am still here. So it worked.
Perhaps it is that surprise element that makes people sit up and take notice of Susan, and makes people think she is better than she actually is.
Martin
|
|
