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- - Susan Boyle Video (https://thetfp.com/tfp/general-discussion/146926-susan-boyle-video.html)

depends on what you mean by glorified :)

Dunno, guys, given that she had no formal training whatsoever and doesn't even seem to have gotten out much in her life, it seems to me that her raw vocal ability is pretty damn high. You really never know what people might have done if their lot in life had turned out to be even slightly different. If she was 20 years younger and got a break, they'd fix her makeup, do her hair, pluck her eyebrows and presto, she'd be no worse looking than Paula Abdul, who also is nothing much to look at without what is obviously a lot of primping.

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Originally Posted by roachboy (Post 2625912)

i sometimes wonder if the concept behind the show was a joke at some level--we can sell people anything--anything at all---and we'll show you that this is the case. yes yes, it's all shit--but people like eating it. here, just watch.

It is a cash cow for the producers. Aside from the salaries of the judges, there is little room for whiny celebrities to cry for more money lest they walk. Once a "star" is found, said star can easily be reminded by the record companies where they came from and all it what it will take to leave them standing by David Lee Roth talking to themselves.

I think very few stars are natural. Nearly all of them are produced and sold to us to make us adore them.

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Originally Posted by Nisses (Post 2625828)

I hear so many "don't judge a book by it's cover" remarks, here, and other fora I read with threads about Susan Boyle.

They're judging how good she sang compared to how ugly she looked in their opinion from the start.
I find it somewhat funny that an adage is called for and the unconsciously the exact opposite is done.

I do agree that she deserves to pass into the next round, she's definitly more than able. But if you don't look at the first part, and just listen to the music, you'll not be swept away quite as much as you think you are right now. There was a group of dancers in that same episode that showed something at least equally inspiring (if that Simon character is any measure: he actually jumped to his feet to applaud at the end - staged as it may be)

Their name was Flawless if anybody is interested.

I like irony where I see it, and the fact of the matter is, she's getting this level of attention because she's unattractive and a "small-town" person, where all the media today are pushing the slim, attractive, urban type.

I saw the clip of the dancers and they were very good....but Simon's condescending little speech afterwards might as well have included the wince-making phrase "you people".

No, Susan Boyle certainly is no Charlotte Church, nor an Elaine Paige, but she hit the notes as intended with little to no waivering, had a voice that didn't match her speech or look and chose a song that could very well have been autobiographical.
I have a cd from the musical "Wicked" and while the voices are great with some terrific emotion, I can hear the near-breaking at higher notes. No one's perfect and at least Boyle hit what she had.
Every day we are bombarded with the latest "phenom" and she's it for now, more than likely for the reasons as quoted. There always has to be something-Charlotte Church became a sensation not just for the voice, but the fact that the voice was coming from a child.
Ms. Boyle could possibly get the career that seems to have been stifled living with her mother.

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Originally Posted by ngdawg (Post 2626091)

Simon's condescending little speech afterwards might as well have included the wince-making phrase "you people".

agreed :expressionless:

How funny was she! I loved how she swung her hips around in the beginning. I honestly didn't know what to expect from her... I thought this was gonna be one of those times where someone has such an awful voice that it's just amazing.. not because of how she looks, honestly.. but just how she hopped onto the stage so confidently like we've seen horrible contestants do before wrecking peoples' eardrums. But, I also thought she could've been another person to do that and have a reason for doing it like so many others good ones have done in past seasons.

I really don't see what's wrong with her looks.. she looks normal to me. I mean.. she's not going to be a sexy supermodel at her age.. (there are some hot looking 50 yr olds.. but few). haha

YouTube - Shaheen Jafargholi - 12 Year Old Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 Ep 2

Now here's a natural talent I can get behind. I don't know if this kid has any training, but even if he does it can't be much. There's a noticeable difference between his lack of training and Susan Boyle's, not so much because he has a greater natural talent than she does, but because vocal talent does not stagnate without training, it gets worse. It's unfortunate that Susan didn't get training when she was younger, but without it she seems to have developed a habit of pushing too hard and not supporting. This kid, on the other hand, is still young and hasn't had time to build any debilitating habits. He could have a very bright future ahead of him.

The idea of vocal training, btw, is independent of what type of music is being sung. It doesn't matter whether you're singing jazz, opera, or heavy metal, there is vocal training designed for whatever you're trying to do. (Yes, there are vocal coaches who will teach you how to scream properly in hard rock!) Without it you can be fairly good and skate by on natural talent, but it's highly unlikely you'd ever be great, regardless of your chosen style. Don't get training on how to scream properly, for example, and your songs may sound just as good to your audience, but you'll blow your voice out much sooner, have a shorter career, and probably develop vocal nodules.

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Originally Posted by mixedmedia (Post 2625111)

Not to take away from this woman's talent or the reaction of the audience, but wouldn't Simon Cowell have known about her by the time she walked out on the stage? She had to audition and it's his show, after all...I find it hard to believe there was no heads up.

They all knew about her. This is Paul Potts part 2. They wanted ratings so they found a sequel.

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Originally Posted by Pacifier (Post 2625125)

Bah, I think the Jurys reaction is somewhat staged. They hat the same, from "Oh, so you worthless scum think you can think" to "OMG, you can really sing" reaction when Paul Potts was there. Either those arrogant pricks haven't learned or it is staged.

Staged.

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Originally Posted by little_tippler (Post 2625126)

I didn't find this woman particularly surprising, she sings beautifully but her voice does not have that special quality like some others who have amazed audiences in these shows, such as Paul Potts (far superior than this performance I'd say) or Leona Lewis (but of course, she's beautiful, so it's not news).

What I mean is, while she has a great voice, she sang it similarly to the way many other great singers might, and the voice wasn't out of this world. Maybe she could have chosen a better song.

She was on the evening news here, just because omg this rather odd looking lady can sing really well - how impossible :rolleyes:. Paul Pott is far more amazing to me because he not only has a great voice, it also has a special timbre that others do not. That is what I find breath-taking, not the fact that someone who doesn't have classic good looks can sing well.

Paul Potts' performance blows this lady's out of the water.

I am so surprised at the reaction this woman is getting. She can sing well. But her performance is definitely nothing special; neither are the songs she chose or her TV persona. Paul Potts did this exact same scheme in 2007, but it was fresh and original then. Now this lady's edit seems like it's been "directed" by the same editors that debuted Paul Potts. Put me in the unimpressed, "holy cow this is staged," "Paul Potts was way better," totally cheesed out category concerning Susan Boyle.

According to the Today show, the performance we're all watching ad nauseum was the audition so the judges were getting a first glimpse/listen of Ms. Boyle, much like those audition shows they put on American Idol.

I never watch these insipid programs.
My mother said to find the video.
I think I just needed a good cry that day.

She seems like a lovely sweet person, devoid of affectation.

Her version of 'cry me a river', was adequate, and there were a few places,
where her breath control, and tremoloes were spot on, most of it not so much.

I hope she enjoys her further voice training.

That woman is amazing. Bravo ! :thumbsup:

Here's one woman columnist's interesting take on it...

Quote:

The XX Factor: The Contrarian Take on Susan Boyle

By Meghan O'Rourke
Posted Wednesday, April 22, 2009 8:16 AM

I didn't see the Susan Boyle clip until Sunday, and unlike everyone else in America, I didn't find it moving. Instead, I found it to be a savvy, cynical piece of TV editing. The visual sequence (the one now on YouTube) is perfectly designed to elicit a crude catharsis in its viewers—to borrow a crucial critical term from one of our earliest drama critics, Aristotle. The skeptic in me hardly believes it wasn't scripted. All the obvious reasons why so many have found it so "moving" have been trotted out. Letty Cottin Pogrebin proclaimed it a powerful strike against pervasive "ageism," a clip that showed us how wrongly snide we are about the dreams of a plain 47-year-old woman. And on one level, that's right. Boyle's life has been changed. (For now, at least.) But the real catharsis the sequence offers is that it lets us indulge as a group (this is crucial) our culture's superficial feelings about appearance, age, sexual worth, and then expel them. (Boyle is as unerotic as it gets; actually, she's an-erotic, since she has never even been kissed.) Watching at first, we too are the sneering audience members, the young girls who roll their eyes. (Note how carefully edited the audience shots are.) But—then, cue the music, and even as Boyle is just opening her mouth, people's faces are lighting up. She has relaxed into herself and her voice is... pretty good. (Not great.) And so we get to exhale and let our saccharine hearts soar with the schmaltzy music as, for a moment, we see "proven" on TV that looks and sex aren't everything. For that moment, the light mantle of eros even seems to rest around Boyle—she smiles, she has some cultural worth, someone, we think, might even kiss her one day! Thus, release. In a sense, Boyle inhabits the role of the scapegoat of early village traditions whom we punish with exile (or sneering), but whom we now, through the magic vehicle of TV, welcome back into the fold, surprising ourselves with our capacious hearts.

But do not take this for a moment to be a blow in the face of ageism. Or a sign that we're becoming a more thoughtful culture. Just listen to the condescension in beautiful, tanned, made-over Amanda Holden's language when she tells newspapers that the moment they give Boyle a makeover would be the moment "it's spoilt." Indeed, it would be. It would mean we couldn't for that moment feel our little hit of catharsis, of canned "uplift," before going to our usual over-valorization of erotic value and celebrity plasticity. In one sense, Robin Givhan was wrong yesterday to suggest we're fooling ourselves if we think Boyle doesn't need a makeover. She does. But my bet is that the makeover will only disenchant us with her over time. We got the hit we needed, and like any stimulant, its effect will decrease as we try to re-experience it.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxf...san-boyle.aspx

bravo Meghan

I guess this is why some people write for a living, and I don't :)

Couple of points;
- Susan has a great voice, but there are lots of equally wonderful singers out there who never get a break like she did.
- She wavered a few times, which showed her inexperience and lack of training.
- The producers of this show staged the scene. Simon is a producer of that show. He knew what was coming. It's obvious the two goons talking to her in the wings were expecting that exact reaction from the crowd.
- Simon may not personally have any musical talent, but he knows good talent when he sees it. He has a very refined and critical eye, and is usually spot on.
- I hope she makes a record or two, and can make a comfortable living off this event.