by Craig Herman

Created on: April 18, 2010

I approach “the Susan Boyle story” with much apprehension. Her success seems derived from two main points, I’m afraid neither of which is in keeping with the almost unanimous praise most others bestow upon her.

The first is, as many note, her appearance as typical audition-stage humour. A queer looking woman who on the surface seems to have no idea about the level of her talent – except Boyle is a positive example, taking everyone by surprise. As a result the second point is the aspirational interest in her, she represents the dowdy singleton who would appear to have no place on primetime television, let alone splashed across the world’s media.

Yet there runs something deeper than this. Whilst many talent show auditionees are initially a far cry from their eventual public image (think Kelly Clarkson’s polished rock-chic look when she released ‘Breakaway’, or Leona Lewis’s diva-esque styling upon the release of her debut album ‘Spirit’), their “rough around the edges” look at the start is still pitched almost perfectly for any star-in-the-making. They have age, beauty and the right figure on their sides – the media sheen placed on top simply emphasises what was already there in the first place. Thus Susan Boyle rejects the stereotypical notions of age, beauty and weight where media success is concerned – and I suspect much of her appeal lies in viewers’ own skin-deep perceptions where we look in the mirror and flatteringly compare ourselves to her. She makes us feel good about ourselves and re-ignites the small flicker of belief that if she can make it, then we most certainly can.

See the thing is, if you blindfolded a group of people and played them Boyle’s voice amongst a slew of other classical stars, I’m not convinced she would be highlighted as anything more than “good”. Musically she is anything but extraordinary. That perception becomes relevant when we introduce her background and image to the picture. Only then do our minds begin to stereotype expectations and fail to link Susan Boyle “the voice” with Susan Boyle “the person”. Her voice becomes extraordinary because in some respects, we stop listening to the music and we start hearing the image. It challenges and surprises our expectation of what a good singer should look like.

The more we get used to Susan Boyle’s image and personality, the less extraordinary her voice becomes. Because we are no longer surprised by the marrying of the two elements of musicianship, we once again start to hear the music. I’m certainly not denying that Boyle has talent, nor do I underestimate her appeal to certain demographics for whom she is the fuel of a fantasy life they had written off as never lived but now still have the chance. Ultimately though, the fascination with Susan Boyle is one which we will never truly admit because it exposes the superficial nature of our culture.

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