Susan Boyle (7 page)

‘Get yourself together, sweetheart, for the big one - the semi-final,’ Cowell advised. ‘Shut the door, choose the right song and come back as who you are, not who you want to be.’

It was blunt, certainly, but it was also probably the best advice on offer. But could Susan do it? Could she prove that there was more to her than one performance, however remarkable that had been?

Simon Cowell was in trouble again. Not with Gerry Boyle, although Gerry continued to let it be known that he thought his sister should be receiving different treatment, but with little Hollie Steel, the young girl being talked up as one of Susan’s main rivals. Simon had publicly poked fun at her tutu, and criticized her choice of number - something that was becoming a stock in trade - but Hollie wasn’t having any of it.

‘Simon is a bully,’ she declared. ‘He was very mean to me. He might have thought it was funny, but it’s lonely up there on that stage on your own. I’m only ten, and when he said those things about my tutu I felt like I wanted to cry. I had tears in my eyes, but I didn’t want him to see me cry like the bullies at school, so I thought of things that made me happy. I thought of being in the final of
Britain’s Got Talent
and winning it.’ And winning was what she fully intended to do: ‘I like Susan but I think I can win this,’ declared Hollie. ‘I think she is a good singer, but I think I could do better.’ With that there was more information about the bullying Hollie had endured at school, and how her parents had scrimped and saved to get her into a good school.

Simon wisely decided not to engage in a war of words with a ten-year-old child, but the banter - if that’s what it can be called - and the criticism and the detail about the
BGT
contestants’ difficult circumstances were what made the show. The wider audience was engaging not just with the performance on the television, but with the life and times of the contestants, and the more problems they’d had, the more likely the public were to empathize. No one loves the underdog as much as the British, and with each tear-strewn tale came a wave of sympathy and a rise in viewing figures. Cowell the master manipulator knew this as well as anyone, and he also knew that being criticized in the press by
BGT
performers made for very good publicity. Everyone was happy; they were all getting what they wanted now.

Cowell also knew that it made good copy when he had a go at the contestants, so poor Susan got another tongue lashing from him. By now the Obamas had invited her to sing at the White House, while The Simpsons wanted her to warble to them, prompting Simon to snarl that he was ‘fed up’ with all the attention she was getting.

‘She’s not a winner yet,’ he commented. ‘She’s got four weeks to prepare for the biggest night of her life and she’s got to sing better than she sang before. But it could all go horribly wrong for her because there are so many other distractions.’ He did, however, have the grace to add that he was embarrassed by the judges’ initial reaction to Susan: ‘We were all guilty on the panel of judging her before she sang, and we all got it utterly wrong,’ he admitted. ‘You watch it back and it’s embarrassing.’

Someone else who had got Susan wrong was Michael Barrymore. As the excitement continued to mount, footage emerged from an episode of Barrymore’s 1995 show,
My Kind of People
. Susan had been on it and sang to the great man; he in return totally failed to notice what was in front of him, made a few jokes at her expense - including trying to look up her skirt - and sent her off with a peck on the cheek. The footage had never been televised, and only emerged because Elizabeth MacLean had also been auditioning and was being filmed by her daughter, Julie Febers.

‘Susan was a few people in front of me,’ Elizabeth told the
Mirror
. ‘When she began to sing, I knew she had a great voice, but Michael Barrymore was taking the mickey out of her. This was mine and Susan’s second audition for
My Kind of People
. When I saw her on
Britain’s Got Talent
, I couldn’t believe it was the same Susan . . . I was gobsmacked and I had my hand up to my mouth.’

Barrymore’s loss was Simon Cowell’s gain. Not that Susan was too worried about that: she had gone into hiding again, after the war of words intensified between her brothers and Cowell. Gerard had already had his say; now it was John’s turn, and his view was much the same as his brother’s.

‘Just let her sing,’ he said. ‘We’re pleading with Simon Cowell to loosen the reins. The hype and celebrity don’t mean anything to Susan - she just wants to sing. It is all she has ever wanted to do. Finally she has the chance to show the whole world her amazing talent, but she isn’t being allowed to. The whole world is crying out to hear Susan sing again - they want a product, be it an album or a single - but they want it now. We are more and more worried about her health. She is not used to all this and when I speak to her she sounds exhausted. When Susan signed a contract tying her to
Britain’s Got Talent
before her audition, no one could have predicted what a phenomenon she would become. The normal rules don’t apply any more - and I think Simon Cowell knows it, too. This is a unique situation and needs a unique solution.’

Both brothers clearly had their sister’s wellbeing at heart, and it must have been extremely frustrating for Susan not to be able to show the world what she could do. But a public spat between her family and her mentor was most certainly not going to do her any favours.

It didn’t help that Piers Morgan had now stepped into the row, appearing to play down the depth of Susan’s talent at a press conference in California. The worry was that Susan would become too big for her boots, but what no one seemed to realize was that, far from becoming big-headed, she was finding it increasingly difficult to cope. While her brothers might have been able to trade blows with Cowell and Morgan, Susan was not. What she needed was for all of them to shield and protect her, not start behaving like stags clashing antlers. None of this was in her best interests and it wasn’t surprising that she felt increasingly stressed.

At least Ant and Dec were being supportive, although even they expressed doubts about Susan’s changing appearance. ‘I don’t know about her makeover - she wants to look and feel good and that’s her prerogative,’ said Dec. ‘But she doesn’t have to do it ’cos the whole world fell in love with Susan as she was. I can’t wait to see her again. I can’t wait to see how she is feeling and to see what more she can do. We have only heard the one song from her and I want to hear more.’

‘We knew there were some crackers in the auditions, ’ added Ant. ‘Susan is the favourite, but as the weeks go on you can see there’s more talent out there. It is not a one-horse race.’

What the other talent didn’t have, however, was Susan’s international appeal. Over in the States, where Piers and Simon were doing their bit, fascination for Susan continued to grow. Ryan Seacrest, the host of
American Idol
- another of Simon’s many projects - revealed that a follower on Twitter had asked when Susan would be a guest on the show, which he called a ‘genius idea’. The chances of it happening right then, of course, were pretty low given that Simon wanted Susan to concentrate on
Britain’s Got Talent
, but it was an indication of the level of interest in America - interest that would only grow.

All this interest provoked a rash of stories suggesting that Susan was on the verge of quitting
Britain’s Got Talent
. In actual fact nothing could have been further from the truth. The show had given her the most fantastic opportunity, and she wasn’t going to blow it now, even if she did have to wait weeks before she could sing again. People might have made comments about Susan’s mental ability, but she was canny enough to know that to walk away at this stage would have been madness. And the fact that this wasn’t the first time she had sought a big break into television meant that she knew how rare these opportunities were. She wasn’t going to throw it away.

 

Soon problems of a different nature reared their head when it turned out that some of the other acts were thinking of walking on the grounds that Susan winning seemed to be a foregone conclusion. The saxophone player Julian Smith even came out and said as much: ‘I don’t think I can compete with Susan,’ he complained. ‘I feel no one else has a chance. She’s captured the world’s imagination.’ Other acts were said to feel the same way, and it was certainly true that none of the other acts had found a way into the public’s hearts in quite the same way, but that didn’t actually mean Susan was guaranteed to win.

Again the world piled in with their opinions. Piers wrote on his blog, ‘I think Hollie can beat Susan. And so can Shaheen from last week. So can a few other acts you haven’t seen yet.’ The intention was clear: to show the world that there was everything left for everyone to play for, not that that helped Susan. Even her great supporter Demi Moore voiced concern: ‘Just seen Hollie,’ she tweeted. ‘Wow, the talent keeps on coming. More competition for Susan.’ On a more positive note, however, it was reported that Catherine Zeta-Jones was interested in playing Susan in a film of her life. Hollywood had certainly lost none of its fascination with what was going on across the pond.

As tempers frayed, expectations soared and controversy mounted, Susan inadvertently caused another row by seeming to imply that her appearance on the show hadn’t been the extraordinary chance everyone had thought, but was a result of the show being fixed. She was asked on an American television channel, ‘Did the show find you or did you find the show,’ to which Susan replied, ‘No, the show found me.’ This sparked a furore on the internet, with claims that
Britain’s Got Talent
’s producers knew exactly what they were doing when they picked out this wee Scottish lady. After all, she had auditioned for Barrymore! The claims were hotly disputed by the show’s producers: ‘How exactly would we find Susan?’ demanded one member of the production staff. ‘She’s not exactly someone who sticks out from the crowd. For years she has been looking after her mum and living an ordinary life. In no way did the producers hand pick her for the show.’

Indeed, it appeared that in reality what Susan meant was that she had been trying to find somewhere to show off her talent and, having seen Paul Potts on
Britain’s Got Talent
the previous year, decided that this was the place to do it. To date there have certainly been no serious allegations that she was hand picked in advance, but at the time it added to the rumours and clamour surrounding the show. Not that anyone involved could really have minded - it was becoming one of the most talked-about shows of the decade.

It did seem incredible, though, that it had taken so long for Susan’s talent to be recognized, especially when another video surfaced from 1984. This one was truly jaw-dropping in the light of what the world knew about Susan. It was taken at Motherwell FC’s Fir Park Social Club, which was staging a singing contest between the locals and Coventry’s Tam O’Shanter Club, and Susan was seconded in to sing when someone dropped out. She performed ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ and ‘Memories’, the theme tune from
The Way We Were
, and her voice is as clear, strong and powerful as it is today. But what really knocks the viewer for six is Susan’s appearance.

The video of Susan singing so many years ago established beyond a shadow of a doubt that Susan was an extremely pretty young woman. This isn’t just a polite compliment to a lady coping with a great deal of unfavourable comment about her appearance in middle age; it’s a fact. Susan was slim, had prominent cheekbones, clear skin and a mass of dark, curly hair. She sang with confidence and grace, and anyone viewing the video would have considered her quite a catch.

Her appearance in middle age showed, it seemed, how life had taken its toll. She had led a pretty selfless existence, spending almost her entire adult life doing charity work and looking after her mother, but seeing the video of a young Susan dispels any surprise about the fact that she scrubbed up well. The only surprise is that Susan didn’t attract more admirers in her youth, although when she left the stage, she is quite clearly seen receiving a kiss. Had she still looked like that when she appeared on
Britain’s Got Talent
, she would never have been on the receiving end of the comments she had to endure.

Gerry McGuinness, a school caretaker who took the video, and unearthed it twenty-five years later, certainly thought so. ‘I can remember that she was a shy young girl, but also very attractive back then - she turned a few heads when she came into the club,’ he told the
Daily Record
, which also put the clip on its website. ‘She was not even supposed to be singing, but agreed to perform for the Tam O’Shanter team because someone had dropped out. Even back then I don’t think anyone expected too much from her because she was so shy, but when she began singing people took notice. I watched Susan on
Britain’s Got Talent
but didn’t recognize her as the girl from my video until a relation called and asked if I still had the tape.’

The answer was that he did. ‘When I realized who it was, I called my son Jamie in Wishaw and told him I was sending up the video,’ Gerry continued. ‘It’s great Susan is finally getting some recognition. She is a great singer and it seems right that at some point she would get the credit she deserved.’

Jamie was also pretty staggered. ‘It is just amazing that nobody realized what a talent she was until now,’ he said. ‘When you watch the video, it seems so obvious that she was born to be a star.’

The video was, in some ways, just a forerunner of Susan’s extraordinary performance two and a half decades later. Everyone who had known her as a young girl talked constantly about her shyness, which had clearly been a burden she had been forced to overcome. But watching her perform all those years ago, the shyness is not apparent. There’s something slightly modest about the way she looks as she sings, but she’s able to put body and soul into the song and immerse herself in it entirely. As she herself said after she became famous, when she sang, she was able to communicate with the world in a way she couldn’t through speech. And just as in ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, she really inhabited the song ‘Memories’ and made it her own, another quality that made her stand out from the rest. The song is about a woman looking back over a past love affair - something it was well known that Susan had never experienced - and yet she sang the song with real emotion and pathos. It could have been her own memories she was looking back on that night, and a love that had once burned brightly but was now lost.