Britian's Got Talent -Amazing singer

I saw it on the news today too. She had a fab voice. I find these shows like a modern version of roman entertainment, so it was nice to see Jane Average getting ahead...still won't make me watch it!   

I think her voice is above average, but certainly not amazing. I think she is getting such publicity because people expected her to have a crap voice based on her looks and her age, and they are amazed that she can carry a tune despite not looking like Beyonce, let alone do it reasonably well. Even one of the judges said he was surprised.  If a young, attractive woman with a good body turned out to have a good voice, I think she wuold receive compliments but people wouldn't say they were surprised.

still won't make me watch it!   

I can't watch it either. But only because I always wind up sobbing when I do!  :\\\'(

When they showed her backstage they showed her stuffing some sort of pastry in her mouth and pacing around. I always eat when I'm nervous, so that made me smile. And it's good to hear someone sing on stage who isn't afraid of a donut! 

still won't make me watch it!   

I don't watch the US or UK version. Its too much like "Star Search" to me. Yeah, I know...I am old. Anyway, I really dislike Simon so that is another big reason not to watch it.

Good article in The Guardian today

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/16/britains-got-talent-susan-boyle

Here is a bit of it.

Why are we so shocked when "ugly" women can do things, rather than sitting at home weeping and wishing they were somebody else? Men are allowed to be ugly and talented. Alan Sugar looks like a burst bag of flour. Gordon Ramsay has a dried-up riverbed for a face. Justin Lee Collins looks like Cousin It from The Addams Family. Graham Norton is a baboon in mascara. I could go on. But a woman has to have the bright, empty beauty of a toy - or get off the screen. We don't want to look at you. Except on the news, where you can weep because some awful personal tragedy has befallen you.

Simon Cowell, now buffed to the sheen of an ornamental pebble, asked this strange creature, this alien, how old she was. "I'm nearly 47," she said. Simon rolled his eyes until they threatened to roll out of his head, down the aisle and out into street. "But that's only one side of me," Susan added, and wiggled her hips. The camera cut to the other male judge, Piers Morgan, who winced. Didn't Susan know she was not supposed to be sexual? The audience's reaction was equally disgusting. They giggled with embarrassment, and when Susan said she wanted to be a professional singer, the camera spun to a young girl, who seemed to be at least half mascara.

Simon Cowell, now buffed to the sheen of an ornamental pebble, asked this strange creature, this alien, how old she was. "I'm nearly 47," she said. Simon rolled his eyes until they threatened to roll out of his head,

My take on that was that he was shocked she was only 47, not that he was amused she was so old. I mean, she looked a good 15 years older than that.

[rant] 

We get the TV shows we deserve.  All of this modern reality stuff started around 2000 with Big Brother and Survivor.  Pop Idol/American Idol added the talent/reality show to the genre a couple of years later.   Producers & networks like reality shows because they're way cheaper to make than dramas or sitcoms (remember when the entire cast of Friends asked for $1 millon per episode?  The top 24 on American Idol get about $1000 per episode.  Producers can do math, too).  The number of reality/competition shows exploded throughout the decade, and has continued to do so.  (As an aside, how many cooking competition shows can the UK put on TV before that's all there is?)

One of the conventions of the talent/competition show is the contestant who has no talent, no chance to win, and no self-awareness.  There are a couple of different versions of this character, ranging from the lunatic who rants at the judges and the cameras before stomping out of the building, to the socially inept mumbler who listens politely to the judges scorn, says "Thank you," and wanders off.

The producers of Pop Idol/American Idol discovered early on that audiences were tuning in as much, if not more, for the bad auditions as they were for the good, and the weirder the contestant was - the funnier looking, the more overweight, the more socially inept (and if possible all of the above) - the better.  How cringe-inducing is it to watch the bad auditions, sitting on your couch at home when the weirdo walks into the room and you just know they're going to be bad and Simon Cowell is going to let them have it?

Britain's Got Talent/America's Got Talent take that one step further and put the auditions on stage in front of an audience, so not only do the talentless get humiliated on national television, they also get humiliated in front of a live audience on national television.  So much more cringe-worthy!

So, yeah, it's too bad that it's come to the point where televised entertainment consists mainly of publically poking unpretty people on TV with a stick, and it's nice that the kind of weird-looking lady on TV can sing, but let's admit that it's come to this because we've told TV producers through our viewing habits that poking people with a stick is exactly what we want to watch.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

[/rant]

I find the whole thing pretty ridiculous and can't see what the fuss is all about. Ok so a woman who could be considered rather ugly, a little overweight, with a continuous eyebrow and not perhaps in the prime of life has a great voice - so do many others yet the media is making her out to be some sort of supreme being....since when was there a rule that you had to be pretty to be able to sing.

Demi Moore mentioned her on twitter....oooooh

I just don't get why people are getting so excited, ive watched the video a few times and seen Simon Cowell beaming with his new smile (thats where the glaciers have all gone..) and the female judge, her hands 10 ft. in front of her body clapping away like a deranged seal but come on...is this really that special or unique. what am i missing here?

I kind of like it. I don't make a point of watching, but if it's on and I'm sitting there, I wouldn't turn it off.

I think the point is that Susan Boyle would never be signed to a record label. Not at her age, looking the way she does. No, that's not right, but that's the way the world works. So programmes like this give people like Susan Boyle a chance to be heard and for people to appreciate her voice. And if she gets her 15 minutes out of it, more power to her. It's nice to see someone in the spotlight who doesn't look like your typical singing star.

I find the whole thing pretty ridiculous and can't see what the fuss is all about. Ok so a woman who could be considered rather ugly, a little overweight, with a continuous eyebrow and not perhaps in the prime of life has a great voice - so do many others yet the media is making her out to be some sort of supreme being....since when was there a rule that you had to be pretty to be able to sing.

Demi Moore mentioned her on twitter....oooooh

I just don't get why people are getting so excited, ive watched the video a few times and seen Simon Cowell beaming with his new smile (thats where the glaciers have all gone..) and the female judge, her hands 10 ft. in front of her body clapping away like a deranged seal but come on...is this really that special or unique. what am i missing here?

HA  I saw a photo of the old Simon Cowell's teeth.. WOW! Brown crumbling pebbles..

Simon Cowell beaming with his new smile (thats where the glaciers have all gone..) and the female judge, her hands 10 ft. in front of her body clapping away like a deranged seal

  Too funny....

I think Susan deserves her 15 minutes of fame...they let Katie Price who has no talent whatsoever have more then 15 minutes ...so I think it is only fair that someone with an actual talent get a chance to shine...lol

Susan Boyle's perforamnce on Britiain's Got Talent is just pure amazing.  I heard about her on the news and did see a couple of interviews with her with CNN and Good Morning America.  What a hidden talent.  I watched her on You Tube.  I was completely memersized and i did shed a tear or two.  It proves the fact that we should not judge someone first and then they get the last laugh.  I hope she wins and so many people are cheering her on

Go girl!

The author here seems to agree with me.

http://entertainment.uk.msn.com/tv/realitytv/britains-got-talent/article.aspx?cp-documentid=16129864&GT1=61503

quite apart from not being the most talented person to appear on Britain’s Got Talent during its three year history, Susan wasn’t even the most talented performer to appear on her own episode. That honour has to go to dance group Flawless, who quite literally wiped the floor with the competition. Their performance was precision perfect, hugely imaginative and rightly adjudged by Simon Cowell to be “one of the best things I’ve ever seen in my life”.
 
So why aren’t Flawless commanding the attention of American news anchors right now? It would seem their only mistake has been to turn up to the audition looking like they were probably going to be quite good. You see, it’s not Susan’s talent that has whipped up this maelstrom of attention; but rather the differential between our initial expectations of her ability, and the quality of her actual performance.