Posted by
Steve on Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:44:04 PM
Earlier this week, Neal Boortz had a link up on his Nealz Nuze that just said something about it being good to start your week. I clicked on the link because I was curious and found the U-Tube video of Susan Boyle. To say I was moved by the video was an understatement.
I have been cursed with perfect pitch. That means that singers that sing out of tune drive me crazy. Since over 90% of all today’s singers sing out of tune, I almost never listen to music anymore. When Susan hit her first note, I knew I had heard a singer that was exceptional. Not only was the tone clear, full and rich, it was exactly on pitch. The reaction from the crowd took about one note longer before they also realized that they were hearing an exceptional voice singing.
When Susan came out on stage, she was unremarkable. She is 47 years old from a small town somewhere in either northern England or Scotland. That comment comes from living in England for two years and knowing a little bit about English accents. The judges were unimpressed with her from the start. They handled her as if she had no business on that stage. When she said she wanted to be as big a star as the biggest star in England, the judges were incredulous. Susan was a bit “cheeky” with the judges in response to their stern tone. At that point, people were laughing at Susan. Her hair was not well done; she probably had fixed it herself. She looked to me like your typical middle-aged housewife in England. She wore a plain dress, nothing fancy. In other words, she was up there in a plain wrapper and asked the world to believe.
From listening to the Dennis Prager show, I learned a few other facts about Susan Boyle. She was oxygen deprived at birth. That has given her a learning disability. The learning disability made her the brunt of many jokes by her classmates in school. They taunted her and bullies attacked her. Most of it was verbal and she says those scars never go away. She lived with her parents until her father passed away about 10 years ago. Then she lived with and took care of her mother until she died recently. She spent her free time singing in the church choir. She also said that she has never been kissed.
I like to think of myself as old hard heart. The real story is that when I see a success story like this, I get all choked up. She stood there with all her handicaps and won. She asked for no special favors. She was granted no special favors. She had one chance to succeed or fail. She took that chance and succeeded far beyond her wildest imaginations. One week ago, nobody had heard of her except for a few people in the collection of villages she calls home. Today, millions of people know of her and applaud her success.
Time will tell if success will change Susan Boyle. It will obviously change her on the outside. She will have money to have people fix her hair. She will have money to buy fancy dresses. She may even lose a little weight. Like almost all of us (myself included), she has put on a few pounds over the years. She is not badly overweight, but a few pounds would greatly improve her image. The real test will be if she changes on the inside. Right now, she is proud of who she is and yet humble at the same time. She is here with no regrets over what has happened in her life. Will success change that self image that she currently has? Only time will tell.
I wish Susan Boyle well in her future singing career. She has a voice that you so rarely hear. I hope some singing coach doesn’t try and change her voice into something else. Right now, she has a perfect voice. The volume, pitch and fullness are all in the right amounts. If you mess with perfection, sometimes you end up with something much less. In my estimation, she does everything right when it comes to the voice, don’t change a thing. You may need to work with her on timing or reading music, but somehow I doubt that. She already got that training in the church choir.