Susan Boyle’s voice lifts her beyond stereotype
Susan Boyle has become an Internet sensation with nearly 100 million
views of her April 11 performance on “Britain’s Got Talent.” |
A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom and Linda Green*
April 24, 2009
It’s hard to find a moment of grace on a reality television show.
That may be why Susan Boyle stunned judges and a live television
audience on IVT’s “Britain’s Got Talent” with her vocal performance of
“I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical, “Les Misérables.”
Since then, the YouTube clip of that April 11 performance has become
so popular it seems impossible to count how many viewings it has
received, but the total is upward of 40 million hits. Her next
appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent” is May 23.
|
The Rev. Safiyah Fosua says she was delighted by the attention paid to
Susan Boyle following her appearance on IVT’s “Britain’s Got Talent.” A
UMNS file photograph by Jeanette Pinkston, GBOD.
|
The most obvious moral to the Susan Boyle story, according to Robert
Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular
Culture at United Methodist-related Syracuse (N.Y.) University, is the
one handed down by parents, teachers and pastors: Don’t judge people by
their looks. The not-so-nice lesson is that her song is served up in a way that
might have made Barnum, the circus promoter, proud. “I was in the
airport last Wednesday and you would swear that this was the only thing
happening in the world at the time,” Thompson recalled. “There was a
freak show kind of thing to it. There is more of the idea of ‘isn’t it
funny and amusing to see people who aren’t beautiful with a beautiful
voice.’”
That idea is reinforced by pop culture. “Our young people are
bombarded by the messages of society that suggest that the only thing
that matters is what they look like,” said the Rev. Claire Smith,
director of youTheology and Youth Ministries Specialist-in-Residence at
United Methodist-related Saint Paul School of Theology. “They feel
pressured to conform to all of these images and in some ways, the story
bears that out. She was judged by what she looks like.”
Rather than conforming to society’s image of her, Boyle used the
gifts she was blessed with. “She still ended up giving a better
performance and having more accolades than the people who came out
looking how everyone expected them to look,” Smith added. “But that is
because of what she had within her.”
A singer’s dreams
The 47-year-old Boyle is from Blackburn, a village in the West
Lothian region of Scotland, where she has led a quiet life, tending to
her aging parents before their deaths and volunteering at her local
Catholic church. But she has been singing since she was 12, with dreams
of becoming a professional singer. Her confidence in her singing is
apparent on the YouTube clip. “I’m going to make that audience rock,”
she said before taking the stage.
|
Dean McIntyre
|
Michael Wakelin, the former head of religious broadcasting at the BBC,
wasn’t totally surprised by the sudden interest in Boyle, pointing to
the “strong strand in the British psyche” which supports the underdog. “Add to that a dislike for the judges who were so scornful before
she sang, a genuine innocent with genuine talent and all the
ingredients were there for a tear-jerking media moment,” said Wakelin,
a Methodist lay minister who lives in the Manchester area. “My slight
concern is that if she had looked more 'presentable' would her actual
talent deserve such coverage?”
And yet, he added, the performance offers up “a moment when we are
invited to take another look, where our fixed judgements are challenged
and we are forced to redefine our sense of beauty and grace away from
packaging -- to simple reality.”
The rapid movement from surprise to delight to outright adrenaline
rush for the crowd was an incredible thing to watch, said Marcia McFee,
co-music director of the 2008 United Methodist General Conference.
|
The Rev. Darryl Stephens
|
“We must be willing to recognize that holy delight, God-given and
soul-moving talent, is to be found in many places, not just the places
we have been conditioned to look for it. And if we don't offer
ourselves the chance to see beauty in what we think are unlikely
places, we will miss out on much of the wonder of what God has
created,” she said. “We are called to ‘see’ with renewed vision. And
the more we open up to the unexpected, the more we discover.
Safiyah Fosua, director of preaching ministries at the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship, was delighted by the attention to
Boyle.
“The thing that strikes me most pleasantly is that the Western world
is finally starting to get over our preoccupation with stereotypes,”
added Fosua, who is associate editor of the Africana Worship Book
Series. “It is so refreshing that we are able to recognize beauty when
and where we find it and we are able to recognize God-given talent
where we find it.”
Appearance, not ability
To Dean McIntyre, director of music resources for the United
Methodist Board of Discipleship, the real issue is not the quality of
her singing, but the expectations placed on a person because of
appearance or background.
“It is the incongruity of what the ear hears with what the eye
sees,” he said about Boyle’s performance on the show. “She is a good
singer and is possibly going to go on to bigger and better things.”
|
Jorge Lockward believes the power of music lies in its prayerful
quality and ability to connect people. A UMNS file photograph by Russ
and Mary Olsson, GBGM.
|
Society is often confused about what beauty represents, according to
the Rev. Darryl Stephens, a United Methodist ethicist who recently
joined the staff of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and
Role of Women.
“In society, we tend to assume that beauty is a virtue,” he
explained. “I think that’s where we get misled and surprised.” People
also tend to link beauty to other attributes, like talent and
friendliness, he said. “We’re surprised if someone who doesn’t fit our
notion of beauty is talented.”
Boyle, who recorded a song for a benefit CD a decade ago and has
taken singing lessons, is not a novice, Stephens pointed out. “It
requires practice to be good at something. Susan has been working for
35 years trying to become excellent, to develop herself in that way.”
The viewing of Boyle’s performance by millions over the Internet led
to what Émile Durkheim, a late 19th century French sociologist called
“an experience of collective effervescence,” he said, an experience “we
can all have together that transcends our individual experience of the
moment.”
The power to connect
Jorge Lockward, program coordinator of the Global Praise program at
the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, believes the power of
music lies in its prayerful quality and ability to connect people.
In his opinion, the way Boyle sang “I Dreamed a Dream” and the story
behind her quest is authentic. “You feel that she’s believing it,”
Lockward explained. “You could feel the audience living the song with
her as she was singing it.”
|
The Rev. Cynthia Wilson says God is using ordinary people like Susan Boyle “to carry messages of hope and healing.”
A UMNS file photograph by Mike DuBose.
|
Cynthia Wilson, a well-known United Methodist musician and singer,
believes someone like Boyle causes a dilemma for the entertainment
industry.
“What do you do with a Susan Boyle who does not need all of the
bells and whistles in order for the message to be heard through music
and the healing to take place through music?” asked Wilson, who is a
student at Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Ill.
“The healing that I am talking about is through the one person in
the world now who is considered the honorary guru--Simon Cowell. We
watched him melt because of the gift of song. Those who have not been
clothed in humility are now being moved to a place where they are
having to rethink their own grandiosity.
“God is using ordinary people in order to carry messages of hope and
healing,” she added. “And those who have been making key decisions
across the world about people’s lives are now being called to task by
plain old regular ordinary people like Susan Boyle.”
*Bloom and Green are United Methodist News Service news writers based in New York and Nashville, respectively.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Video
YouTube: Susan Boyle
Audio
Susan Boyle’s impact: A UMNS audio report
Related articles
Analysis: Singer teaches us how to love, respect our neighbor
Susan Boyle: redefining beauty, grace, success
Why Susan Boyle inspires us
Susan Boyle and Paul Potts: Not Quite Out of Nowhere
Resources
Global Praise
Board of Discipleship | 
Facebook
Korean News