Simon Cowell sneered and the huge audience at the “Britain’s Got Talent” show made the sort of faces associated with a bad smell. The object of their disaffection was contestant No. 432, a plain, middle-aged woman from Scotland with bushy eyebrows and a dress and hairdo that might have been stylish when Dwight Eisenhower was president.
The looks of disdain would shortly turn to tears of sheer elation, as Dawna Friesen said in a report filed for TODAY Wednesday. But first, there was the Cowell torture test for the woman to endure.
“What’s your name, darling?” Cowell said, his tone dripping with condescension.
The woman, who seemed somewhat unnerved by the bright lights and the big crowd in the concert hall where the show was recorded, said she was Susan Boyle. She said she was 47 years old, unemployed, and lived alone with her cat, Pebbles. She had never gone on a date and had never been kissed, she added in a thick brogue.
But Boyle showed a certain presence and a confidence that didn’t gibe with her appearance, which The Times of London would describe as “frumpy.”
Asked what she was doing on “Britain’s Got Talent,” she struck a saucy pose with her hand on her hip and replied, “I’ve always wanted to perform in front of a large audience. I’m going to make that audience rock.”
And what did she hope to get out of it, Cowell persisted.
“I’m trying to be a professional singer,” Boyle said. “I’ve not been getting the chance before. But here’s hoping it will change.”
That’s when the looks on the faces of the spectators really screwed up in disbelief.
And then the music for “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables” began, and Boyle began to sing. By the time Boyle hit her third note, Cowell’s eyebrows had shot up into the rafters in amazement. Within a dozen more, the audience rose as one in rapture at a voice that must have been forged in heaven...
Performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY