Re: Britain's Got Talent 2009
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Adam Lenhardt
Cynical much? Professionals on Broadway should sing better than an amateur from provincial Scotland. Why is it such a threatening thing that someone who doesn't fit popular culture's image of success acheive something notable?
Yes, she had to have been prescreened and yes, she's going to be a gold mine for Simon Cowell. That doesn't change the extraordinary fact that a completely ordinary middle-aged woman put herself out there in a very personal way and connected with audiences around the world.
|
You really missed my point. I have no issue with her. Just with the way this whole "phenomenon" has been carefully orchestrated. It's just like with that "amateur opera singer" Paul Potts a few years back who also looked kinda funky and came out of nowhere. Then his past started surfacing. With Boyle, first, she is not an amateur. She actually has studied voice and recorded before. And has been trying to make a career for years. She was even on a charity record back in 1999...
Susan Boyle and Paul Potts: Not Quite Out of Nowhere - TIME
"Susan Boyle and Paul Potts: Not Quite Out of Nowhere
The story of Susan Boyle — like that of Paul Potts before her — is, except to the most jaded and curmudgeonly among us, completely irresistible. Fished, seemingly, from the bottom of the troll pond by Britain's Got Talent, these two humble, working-class, physically ill-favored souls were suddenly found to be capable of creating things of astonishing beauty. People reacted as if vast quantities of treasure were discovered in the trunk of a broken-down Hyundai abandoned on their street. It was always there, but nobody had ever bothered to look. Thanks to that grouchy Simon Cowell (and YouTube), the two amateur singers each became overnight sensations, bringing lumps to the throats and surreptitious wiping of the eyes to millions, including the show's judges.
Ugly duckling stories really do not get any better than this. And Britain's Got Talent milked them for all they were worth, cutting away to eye rolls and snickering by the audience and judges before the two wow-inducing performances. (Eye rolls and snickering, of course, can be taped at any time and edited in later, but never mind.) But exactly how untutored and undiscovered were Potts, who went on to win 2007's competition and recently released the CD Passione, and Boyle, who since her performance surfaced last week has become a household name on at least two continents? (See the top 10 songs of 2008.)
Their life stories, as told in countless profiles, are oddly similar. Potts, 39, was raised in a scuzzy part of Bristol, England, we're told, by a bus-driver dad and supermarket-cashier mom. Boyle, 48, was one of nine children whose father worked in a car factory and mother in a typing pool. At school they were both bullied. When he turned up in front of the judges, Potts was a dentally challenged mobile phone salesman, wearing a $50 suit from the supermarket chain Tescos. Boyle, with her gold dress, black hose, white shoes and hedgerow eyebrows, was unemployed and, yes, living alone with her cat, Pebbles. Nobody, the show made clear, had any idea they could sing.
Well, not quite. Luciano Pavarotti, for one, had an idea about Potts. While Potts' hometown, Fishponds, is not an upscale neighborhood, he went to St. Mary's Redcliffe, one of the best non-private schools in Bristol. After he graduated with honors from university, he went on a quiz-cum-talent show hosted by Michael Barrymore and won enough money to take singing classes in Italy. There he performed for Pavarotti.
Upon Potts' return to England, he worked his way through the amateur opera scene. According to the program for a 2003 Bath Opera production of Aida in which he appeared, he had already sung with that company several times and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. But that same year, he had a nasty bicycle accident. Health difficulties and medical bills took him away from opera and into his job selling phones. (Read "Why American Idol Keeps Soaring.")
Boyle's story is similar but with fewer light notes. Her hardscrabble town was Blackburn in Scotland. She also auditioned for a Barrymore TV show, but didn't make the cut. Yet she took singing lessons and recorded Cry Me a River for a charity CD in 1999, the same year she made a demo tape. An observant Catholic, she often sang at church and on karaoke nights. So her talent was no surprise to her neighbors. "Everyone here knew she could sing," Jackie Russell, manager of the local pub, told the AP. "We were always saying, 'You should go in for talent competitions.'" What held Boyle back was caring for her aging parents. She entered BGT, after her mother died, because she was approached by talent scouts from the show who asked her to enter.
Potts and Boyle are not, in short, two undiscovered singers who never got their shot at fame. Their stories are less telegenic than the one sold by Britain's Got Talent, but much more common. Thousands of singers take their shot and fail, just as these two had..."
So yes, I am cynical. Not about her talent so much, just the ridiculous way this was pushed on an unsuspecting and gullible crowd. And they deliberately made her look as frumpy as possible. My ex used to do little guest fitness and nutrition segments on local and national TV and even for the small ones like Good Day NY, they had hair and makeup people on set so she could look good for TV. This was a HUGE national show and she came out looking like Mickey Dolenz. On purpose. And Simon and the other judges rolled their eyes. On cue.And then looked gobsmacked when GASP! she like thousands and thousands of other hopeful singer, artists out there, could actually sing decently, (And sorry, not amazingly...)
And yes, I work in the biz so I know quite alot about "show business".
The irony once again is if she were attractive, this wouldn't even had a made a bump on the news radar here.... But she's not, so WOW!!!!!
And Simon will make all the $$$$ I mean, good for her, I'm very happy that someone is getting recognized for their talent, but the real issue is the way it's happening here. Why couldn't she get a deal before? It's apparently because of the way she looks which is indeed a shame. But now, the whole thing is almost like a carnival. "Look at the ugly frumpy virgin with the beautiful voice!!!!" It's just nauseating on many levels... She might make a few $ but Simon and the rest of the managers, agents, marketers etc... will really clean up...
