Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Dream Your Dream: Susan Boyle


The next time we think we can't ever accomplish what we want because we believe we are too old, unknown, overweight, inexperienced, unattractive or afraid, let us remember Susan Boyle.

Go watch the Youtube clip at the link above before you read this SPOILER:

EW said it best:

I'm still stuck on Susan Boyle, and still weeping... I play the YouTube clip over and over of Boyle, the frumpy, middle-aged British lady who marched out on the stage of the national TV show Britain’s Got Talent this past weekend. She bided her time through the judgmental hoots and snickers of the studio audience and judges (headed by international snickerer-in-chief Simon Cowell). She sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. And she brought a worldwide audience to their feet -- to her feet -- with the grandeur of her voice.

...I'm pondering why the experience of watching and listening to Ms. Boyle makes so many viewers cry, me among them. And I think I've got a simple answer, at least for me: In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging -- the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts -- the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms. Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace. She pierced my defenses. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective from time to time.

Now that's what I call a Goddess.

Sia

Update: 4/18/909

Loving Susan Boyle: Next Stop Larry King & Oprah

How Susan Boyle Won Over the World

5 comments:

Cyn said...

Oh, Sia, that is truly beautiful. And, you nailed the reason it so resonates within us.

I am going to post this on my blog with credit to you. I feel renewed.

Cyn

Lee said...

Oh, yes. I cried. Am still teary. It was so powerful and so brave of her. For me, it was a victory for all the older, dowdy, unloved women, indeed for all humans. What we look like on the outside is not the measure of our beauty.

Stray Yellar Dawg? said...

Yes. I think you have nailed it! I know why I cry every time I hear this. Reordering of the universe does not come easily... even for the heart that desires it.

Anonymous said...

Yes! Exactly. Human Grace. What we so very much need. Lovely piece.

Anonymous said...

She gets more amazing everyday by refusing a makeover and just being who she is. I do so hope she has the strength to continue that direction. I have found a new Hera.