Thirty-two million hits and counting on YouTube. The kind of numbers most artists would die for. And Susan Boyle isn't even quite sure what YouTube really is. Why has this woman struck such a chord with the general public?
A quick three minute clip prior to her performance let us know all we THOUGHT we knew about this shy woman from Britain. We all made a gigantic assumption before she opened her mouth to sing. And we were all very wrong.
The shock on Simon's face said it all. We didn't expect this woman -- whose looks were forgettable and whose obvious backwardness we found slightly amusing -- to sing the way she did. But it wasn't just the fact that she could carry a tune -- a BIG tune -- from Les Miserables. It was the lyrics of the song itself that captivated us. "I Dreamed a Dream" was more than a song Susan chose -- it could have easily been her life story.
This is what A&R departments at record labels are designed to do -- to find not only the Artists, but help them define their Repertoire. Susan Boyle needed no A&R executive for that. She found a song that she could pour her very soul into singing. She found a song that proclaimed what she was feeling. And she made us feel it with her.
"My life has killed the dream I dreamed..." she sang softly in the closing stanza. And in that moment, we knew that each word she had sung had been the absolute truth. Her life of poverty, obscurity, loneliness and ridicule had killed her dreams. But the song that she chose to represent her life story gave her dream one last chance to be fulfilled. And that's what happens to an artist who marries their voice to the perfect song that best describes their personal journey. It is the authenticity of that moment that has made the whole world fall in love with Susan Boyle. It is what every artist should strive for.
