# Britain's Got Talent meets Les Miserables **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 13, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906 "2009-04-13T01:39:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/121 "2009-04-18T01:11:23Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#): > > Best shot of the whole clip was Simon’s eyebrows going up when she started singing. He didn’t give her a standing O. I don’t watch American Idol; is he one of those wankers who just refuses to be impressed by anything on general principle? He tends to be the hardest judge to impress from what little I’ve seen of the show but, honestly, I don’t mind his approach. He doesn’t mince words and, if you impress him and he gives you praise, you _know_ you’ve done something right. It’s a cutthroat business, and in a business like this, I think this approach is better than sugar-coating everything, but that’s just me. So, no, I wouldn’t call it not being impressed by anything on general principle, but rather that he’s been entrenched in this business and has seen, what, thousands of people come through the door, so, unless you’ve really brought something amazing to the table, he’s not going to be impressed. There’s plenty of good singers out there. There’s few _great_ singers, and that’s what he’s looking for. ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/122 "2009-04-18T01:31:04Z")
I can see the point of those 2 annoying guys on the sideline after viewing this clip - make sure you watch the whole way through! [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktHxY30xImA) Soeone make me stop! I’m meant to be outside scrubbing my back stairs! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/123 "2009-04-18T01:33:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > He tends to be the hardest judge to impress from what little I’ve seen of the show but, honestly, I don’t mind his approach. He doesn’t mince words and, if you impress him and he gives you praise, you _know_ you’ve done something right. It’s a cutthroat business, and in a business like this, I think this approach is better than sugar-coating everything, but that’s just me. So, no, I wouldn’t call it not being impressed by anything on general principle, but rather that he’s been entrenched in this business and has seen, what, thousands of people come through the door, so, unless you’ve really brought something amazing to the table, he’s not going to be impressed. There’s plenty of good singers out there. There’s few _great_ singers, and that’s what he’s looking for. Simon Cowell is a shrewd businessman who realised that he could combine: - a reality TV show starting with hundreds of deluded people who thought they were talented - a talent show that could find 10 good singers who would go on tour, plus a couple who would turn professional - a knockout competition using judges in standard categories (knowledgeable music insider, talented pretty girl, rude bloke) Given that Cowell earns money from: - being paid as a TV producer - being paid as a judge - being paid as a record company executive I don’t think he’s much bothered by how much talent there is. He’s a highly-competitive bloke (note how he always has the last word and dominates Paula in particular) and values ratings above all. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/124 "2009-04-18T01:40:52Z")
> [@glee](#): > > I don’t think he’s much bothered by how much talent there is. He’s a highly-competitive bloke (note how he always has the last word and dominates Paula in particular) and values ratings above all. Sure, he obviously knows being hard-nosed and all will play into ratings, and offer a counterpoint to the more “approachable” judges, but I’m also guessing that’s not much an exaggeration of his real personality. I’ve encountered plenty of photo editors in my life who very much took the Simon Cowell approach of simply telling me, straight out, that certain pictures I took sucked. I think it’s very common in the industry, and I don’t, personally, see anything wrong with it. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/125 "2009-04-18T04:36:58Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > To me this does not mean that they were a mean-spirited audience at all but one that had learned from past experience not to expect much from a contestant who didn’t appear to be a serious contender, and who were more than happy to cheer and applaud her remarkable talent once they found out they were wrong. I actually think their behavior speaks very well of them. I’m reminded on Super Bad Brad’s [appearance on _Showtime at the Apollo_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1MYMP7xrMw&fmt=18). Legendarily tough audience, greasy-looking homeless guy with ghetto blaster… ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/126 "2009-04-18T06:46:13Z")
OK, I skipped about half of this thread, so I don’t know what all was said. I love being a Doper. But some of you embarrass me. If this isn’t a feel-good story for you, go piss elsewhere. [Apologies to all if this is an inappropriate PWD response.] ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/127 "2009-04-18T07:49:03Z")
Hopefully she’ll turn out more albums and be a bigger success than [this guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hung) from American Idol. I am a bit cynical, and I do hope she wins the whole thing, but I do also want to see her get more than just a single CD that sells well and then obscurity, but then again, I don’t know the names of any American Idols except for three of them And THAT guy. :shrug: Reality TV’s kinda a harsh mistress like that. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/128 "2009-04-18T09:20:56Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > I’m also suspicious of the audience reactions. I mean, what are the odds the director would’ve had a camera trained directly on those girls at the exact moment they look at each other with incredulity and roll their eyes? Very slim, I’d guess. Yeah, how could they know two teenage girls would behave superficially? They must be psychic. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/129 "2009-04-18T09:27:19Z")
[Seen this yet?](http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/17/susan.boyle.lkl/index.html#cnnSTCVideo) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/130 "2009-04-18T12:41:08Z")
She was on one of those entertainment shows last night and did a few bars of “Whistle Down the Wind.” It’s one thing to know a popular song from _Les Miz_; but to know how to sing a song from the failed Andrew Lloyd Webber-Jim Steinem work–I was blown away again! ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/131 "2009-04-18T13:12:00Z")
> [@Ro0sh](#): > > Hopefully she’ll turn out more albums and be a bigger success than [this guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hung) from American Idol. I am shocked to the core of my being that anyone would compare Susan Boyle to William Hung. Hung captured the funny bone of a nation (I guess, anyway, I was puzzled myself) and no one took him seriously as a singer. Susan Boyle has captured the heart and soul of a WORLD, and can sing like an angel. _shakes head_ Thanks Rilchiam! ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/132 "2009-04-18T13:28:33Z")
I was moved when I finally got to watch the clip. It was a very good moment. Then I had to put things in perspective. Watch this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA) from the 10th anniversary of Les Mis. Or this one from the great [Lea Solonga](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNojZg_mrTg&feature=related). I would love to be able to say that she was close to being as good a singer but it is just not true. I’m glad she is having her moment. Much less talented people are rich and famous. ---
**Author:** ![EpiGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8c91f0/32.png) [@EpiGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpiGirl)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/133 "2009-04-18T13:35:52Z")
While she’s a lovely singer, I wasn’t as “wowed” as I thought I’d be when I finally watched her sing, considering the hoopla that has been made. Maybe I’m not a jugmental prick who doesn’t expect someone older and not conventionally attractive to be a horrible singer, I don’t know. From the noise being made about her I thought we’d be hearing Whitney pre-crack. IMO she has a standard show tune voice. I think I am also less impressed because this kind of thing has been done on this show before (i.e. Paul Potts) and now it seems gimicky. Her rendition of “Cry Me A River” is very nice, and I hope she can become a successful singer. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/134 "2009-04-18T13:53:18Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I was moved when I finally got to watch the clip. It was a very good moment. Then I had to put things in perspective. Watch this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA) from the 10th anniversary of Les Mis. Or this one from the great [Lea Solonga](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNojZg_mrTg&feature=related). I would love to be able to say that she was close to being as good a singer but it is just not true. The thing is, though, that she’s an amatuer. There’s no way that someone without those singers’ training and experience will perform on their level. It’s the fact that she’s as good as she is wihtout all that training and experience that has everyone so excited and hopeful for her future success. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/135 "2009-04-18T14:09:26Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I was moved when I finally got to watch the clip. It was a very good moment. Then I had to put things in perspective. Watch this [clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA) from the 10th anniversary of Les Mis. Or this one from the great [Lea Solonga](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNojZg_mrTg&feature=related). I would love to be able to say that she was close to being as good a singer but it is just not true. I’m glad she is having her moment. Much less talented people are rich and famous. My wife pointed this out. She’s seen Les Miserables in both London and Toronto, and in both cases the singer blew Susan Boyle out of the water. But bear in mind that the people singing the song in stage productions have been practising it with the assistance of voice coaches for Christ knows how long. When judging folks on talent shows you have to bear in mind that you’re usually watching relatively uncoached talent with only amateur experience, By **that** standard Boyle’s performance was stunning, especially given that the song requires unusual range. Give her a year of working with professionals and she’ll be better. On preview, uh, what SA said. Darn. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/136 "2009-04-18T14:58:12Z")
One thing that has me impressed about her singing is that she seems to have to ability to make you feel that she is experiencing what she is singing about and to make you share in that emotion. This is a quality I experience in very, very few singers. With almost any singer I can think of, when I’m listening to them I feel like I’m listening to a talented person hitting the right notes and singing the song in a technically proficient way. Frank Sinatra, on the other hand, was a master at creating the feeling that he was singing from the heart and creating those same emotions in you. He could make you feel sad, romantic, happy or like you were on top of the world just from the way he sang. Susan Boyle seems to have that same rare quality and I think it explains why her singing is resonating so strongly with so many people even though in a technical sense her voice may not rise to the level of a trained professional singer. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/137 "2009-04-18T16:23:41Z")
Patti LaPone was impressed, but what does she know? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/138 "2009-04-18T18:13:35Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Since I’ve never seen _Britain’s Got Talent_, does it do the same thing that AI does by having the absolutely hopeless and talentless make fools of themselves? Or are most of the people reasonably talented in some way or another? (The most irritating part of the “bad auditions” that are a staple of AI is that they’ve been sent to the judge’s room by people who’ve heard them sing and know that they’re going in to the lion’s den; for some of them- who _have_ to know they’re awful, they just want camera time so no problem, but it always struck me as cruel to do to the truly deluded when they could just send them home.) The Susan Boyle clip is the only thing I’ve ever seen of _Britain’s Got Talent_, but I’ve seen the US equivalent, _America’s Got Talent_ (NBC), a few times. They have quite a lot people in the early episodes who don’t in fact got talent at all, or whose acts are downright weird. Contestants who come out and compare themselves to a hugely talented star (I remember seeing a truly terrible young man who said he was like Luciano Pavarotti) or who are wearing some kind of costume or unusual clothing are usually awful, and the judges and audience know it. I don’t think Ms. Boyle’s age in and of itself necessarily counted against her. There was an elderly man on _America’s Got Talent_ who didn’t get the eye-rolling treatment – he turned out to be a pretty good singer too, and made it through several rounds of the competition. If Boyle had come across as being more stylish and sophisticated then I don’t think she’d have gotten the same initial reaction. But I don’t have any trouble believing that the _Britain’s Got Talent_ audience members saw this rather dowdy middle aged woman, identified her as a small town type, heard her compare herself to a big star of British musical theater, and assumed she was a deluded old bag who was about to torture them with her screeching. Or that, at best, she was some kind of unfunny comedy act and that the middle aged spinster thing was part of her shtick. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/139 "2009-04-18T19:27:43Z")
> [@cactus\_waltz](#): > > Yeah, how could they know two teenage girls would behave superficially? They must be psychic. :rolleyes: If you can look out over a crowd of around 300-400 people (many of whom are teenage girls, I’m guessing) and know in advance which two will look at each other and roll their eyes in order to capture their actions perfectly on camera…then, yes, I would say you’re a bit psychic. Did _all_ the teenage girls at the show behave exactly the same way? Weren’t there maybe just a few who weren’t fazed at all by Boyle’s frumpy appearance? :rolleyes: But this point has become moot. As someone above pointed out that the show isn’t live, the answer is now obvious: the audience reactions were edited in post. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906/140 "2009-04-18T19:42:19Z")
10mins left in tonights show. Will there be a Susan killer tonight? There hasn’t been yet… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britains-got-talent-meets-les-miserables/492906.md?page=8)