I had a look through the forums and couldn’t see this posted anywhere else.
You may agree or disagree, but I think this video is unmissable. I don’t really want to describe it before people see it, because I think it loses something in the telling.
That was truly wonderful. And it wasn’t only her voice–which was beautiful–it was the way they all had to eat crow, every last one of them. Not a one thought that this frumpish-looking woman had anything to offer, and you could feel the unspoken ridicule–until that moment she began to sing. She sure wiped the smirks from their faces in a hurry!!
Yeah, I saw this video a bit earlier today.
I smiled uncontrollably.
I hope she can find a job with her voice - she’s got some talent.
Totally cool!
She’s got quite the voice.
I love Simon’s face when the blonde is speaking. He looks totally dumbfounded.
I’d love to hear a clip of her singing without all of the crowd noise in the background. Let’s see some albums from this lady!
Wow. I teared up. Got the boyfriend in here to watch and he was amazed.
The moment she sings her first note is priceless.
I just wish I could listen to her without the crowd.
The word is that Simon’s already offered her some sort of deal. I hope so. She deserves to have a musical career.
She was splendid! I, too, want to hear her without the crowd–they drowned her out sometimes.
I’m really sorry for doing this, but I nearly risked a cynicism overdose watching this video. Of course, it was everything I expected: Paul Potts 2.0.
I don’t mean to take anything away from Ms. Boyle or the people who have been moved by the clip, but this is television, not music. The judges didn’t “eat crow”, they played at eating crow because they know and Mr. Potts confirmed that the ugly duckling sells. They needed to throw a bit of mud at her because that’s what the script called for.
There’s so much manipulation going on that it’s very difficult to form any sort of opinion about Ms. Boyle’s music. As a matter of fact, it’s very clear that to the producers of the show it’s not very important, hence the cheers, applause, gasps, fist pumping, close ups of tearful audience members and judges, all of which mask the song and the emotions it’s meant to convey.
Anyway, sorry for the random media criticism, but I found this just too manipulative and identical in almost every way to the Paul Potts segment. Of course, if Ms. Boyle does turn out to be able to reach people in a real concert or record, that’s great for her and her new-found fans.
Agreeing with jovan. She’s certainly a decent singer, but I wouldn’t say that she’s better than any professional singer that you’ll see performing the song in the musical itself. But more importantly, there was no reason to think that she’d be dreadful. Sure she’s not a looker, but that’s an independent variable from your singing voice, and I don’t know why anyone would think otherwise.
More importantly, it’s not like there’s a shortage of decent looking singers. Regardless of this lady’s talent, it’s unlikely that this will actually pan out into anything. She’ll probably get one CD, but if that CD doesn’t contain something that differentiates her from other music or singers, there won’t be a second CD. Most likely they’ll hand her a studio band, and she’ll do a few covers, and end up sounding like any other person doing a straight, uninspired cover.
You say that like it’s a bad thing, but maybe that’s exactly what her dream is?
She’s good, but it’s not the best rendition of that song I’ve heard.
I think some of you are kind of missing the point though.
She’s 47, she lives on her own with her cat Pebbles and she’s never been married or even kissed. She gave up trying to be a singer to look after her dead mother and then settled quietly back into life in a village where the children laugh at her.
But she went in that day and tried anyway and the crowd loved her. Even if she never sang again, even if she went no where after this - she had that one night with people giving her a standing ovation.
Look at her when Simon says yes as well, when she does that little jump thing. You can see how genuinely thrilled she is. That’s what I love about the video, not whether she’s going to be the next Ellen Paige or whatever.
Article about her in the Scotsman:
It was great TV, that’s all that matters. Nobody really thinks she’s gonna be on the westend.
She looked like she had a ball and will feel special for a while. Good on her.
I loved the man and son dance act. They acted all serious in the run up. It gave me the biggest laugh I’d had in ages.
I’m glad she had a lovely day and all, but I too couldn’t help thinking “hasn’t this been done before - more convincingly?” If she had been a good-looking 27-year-old from the city she would have been acknowledged as a very good but not spectacular singer.
I don’t think anyone here has begrudged her her day in the sun, it’s just the idea that it was some kind of stunning blow to the judges that left them dumbfounded and eating crow that’s being questioned.
It was also unnecessarily insulting to tell her that everyone was laughing at her when she came on stage.
Her’s, but I suspect that most people watching the vid are getting misty eyed because they think she should be “a star”.
I got more than misty eyed watching that, and don’t have any illusions about her potential for becoming a “star”; that’s ultimately trivial, anyway. “Hannah Montana” is a “star.”
This is touching because it’s human and real: this utterly ordinary woman has something beautiful that’s been hidden away for decades, and then there’s this moment when her light comes out from under the fucking bushel: “Okay, look at this.”
Outside of the context of the competetition (which is as banal and superficial as that sort of thing must inevitably be,) this is beautiful. If you think about it in terms of the values defined by this sort of “star maker” program and by the entertainment industry in general, you sort of have your nose in the ashcan.