Monday, April 20, 2009

The Susan Boyle Thing

A columnist on Buddy TV posted that in an interview, Susan let slip that the producers of Britain's Got Talent came to her, that she didn't audition for the show. The essay and comments together are pretty interesting, both in the columnist's extreme reaction and the commenters unexpectedly balanced viewpoints.

If Susan is exploited and Simon and company make millions off of her but she gets nothing but limelight, that's unfair...but it would be unfair whether she went to them or they found her.

If Simon knew she was going to sound like that and therefore his reaction was not real, sure, that's disingenuous. But does it matter? I mean, he DID say he knew from the moment she set foot on the stage they were going to hear something special. It made us laugh, thinking he was joking, but it's even funnier if he was serious. And the show is entertainment, nothing more or less.

I think perception is what's important. Who cares if the producers of a reality show are *gasp* manipulating things? Everywhere I saw this video linked, people were inspired. Since I mostly hang out around writers, they were mostly inspired to keep working, keep trying--and THAT'S what will lead them to success, not someone else's precedent.

3 comments:

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

I heard about this also. It doesn't matter if Simon knew ahead or not. If the audience didn't know and we didn't know, it doesn't matter. She was wonderful and for someone like me near her age, it was very inspirational.

Ava Quinn said...

My inspiration came from the fact that this older woman was taking a chance and working towards something big that she wanted. It doesn't matter to me too much how she got the opportunity, just that she's gone for it. Whether they sent her in there or she went herself, ultimately she was the one to make the choice to stand in front of several thousand people, cameras and judges to sing. Do I think she has the best voice? No. Do I think she has hutzpah? Hell yeah. And that's the inspiration for me.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I agree with both of you! Except I did think her voice was amazing (speaking as someone with no training). :)