Everybody's Fantasy

If you’re one of the very few people who don’t know about Susan Boyle, the 47-year-old who dared to enter herself onto the British talent show (39 million hits over a couple of days on U-Tube—a record), follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

She came out on stage to hoots and derisive wolf-whistles since she is a bit plain and a bit dumpy and a bit like what you’d expect a self-proclaimed non-married, never-been-kissed, lady from a small town in West Lothian to look like. Even the judges rolled their eyes or looked very tentative about her. She just didn’t LOOK like someone who would be worth hearing. People sat back in their seats ready to boo her off the stage,

Then she opened her mouth and sang “I had a Dream,” from Les Miserables. From the first few notes, the audience jumped and started roaring approval, and the judge’s eyebrows shot up. She sounded like Elaine Paige, her idol, and her rendition clearly belonged right up there on the stages of the West End and Broadway. An audience that was opposed to her at the start, based only her appearance, became putty in her hands as she reached the climactic high notes of the emotional song. What a night for her. I, like many others, have been watching and rewatching the clip, still feeling the electric moment when she entered into the song and completely forgot all the naysayers around her.

I’m sure we’re going to learn a lot more about her in the weeks ahead. This is a major talent that has captured the world’s imagination. I can almost predict we’ll learn she never promoted herself because she was taking care of family. Women so often do this. Countering that is why I walked the picket line for women’s rights in my youth. We’ve been deprived of her voice for far too long and I wonder how many others are waiting to be discovered even though I doubt that few will have the impact she has had.

She has captured the heart of everyone who has ever been an underdog. How many of us have wished for that one defining moment when we have the chance to show who we are and what we can do? And not only show it but have it recognized as something not just adequate but brilliant. How many of us, just because we are older, have been brushed aside as she was initially? How pitifully few of us get the chance to completely turn around the mad dash for youth and make the case that we older people still have our songs and some of them are beautiful and some of them cannot be sung by those who haven’t lived them. Just because we look older does not mean that we all are.

I wish her well in the next part of the competition but it doesn’t matter whether she wins or not. Her beautiful voice speaks not only for her but for all the rest of us. For those who worry that she is late in starting a career, I’d say she has another twenty years at least. And that’s a lot of pleasure.