Veronica Schmidt – The Times Online (24th April 2009)
Less than a fortnight after winning over Britain and finding world-wide fame, a Susan Boyle backlash has begun.
While the unlikely Britain’s Got Talent sensation became an internet hit and found a raft of famous fans last week, today Louis Walsh claimed she couldn’t live up to the hype.
The X Factor judge and Westlife manager said of the 47-year-old singer: “Susan is a pretty good singer but she’s not a great singer”.
His comment came on the day that the tabloids, who championed her after she performed a Les Miserables song on the ITV talent show, leapt on her for dying her much-derided grey hair.
Splashing pictures of the Scot across its website, The Daily Mail reported that she had swapped her “unruly grey mane for a chestnut brown hue” noting that the singer had “previously insisted stardom wouldn’t change her”.
The Sun reported that Boyle’s makeover had angered Britain’s Got Talent bosses, who wanted to avoid turning her into another sleek singer, after she won over audiences with her frumpy appearance and down-to-earth personality.
Her image as a dowdy virgin had already been called into question earlier in the week after she admitted she was only joking when she told the Britain’s Got Talent cameras that she had “never been kissed”.
“Never been kissed? I’ve never stopped,” she said.
The admission sparked celebrity website The Insider to headline an article: “Susan Boyle lied about never being kissed! Scam!”
The story went on to ask if Boyle was as naïve as she seemed or just hungry for publicity.
While the tabloids and celebrity sites are known for building up celebrities before pulling them down, none are as brutal as the US TV animation South Park, which mocked the singer’s sudden fame in an episode screened in the US on Wednesday night.
The consistently controversial show wrote Boyle into a letter Kyle’s younger brother, Ike, sent to his parents.
“Dear Mommy and Daddy – I am running away. I am sorry but I can no longer handle the monotony of middle class life.
“Everyone at school is a f****** idiot and if one more person talked to me about that Susan Boyle performance of Les Miserables I was going to puke my balls out through my mouth.”
High-brow publications have also ceased celebrating Boyle’s success and begun analysing her staggering rise to fame.
Time magazine this week questioned whether she was really an overnight success or just marketed that way by Britain’s Got Talent.
Pointing out that Boyle had previously auditioned for a Michael Barrymore talent show, taken singing lessons and recorded a track for a charity CD, the magazine concluded her story is “less telegenic than the one sold by Britain’s Got Talent.”
Despite the media backlash, the public is yet to tire of Boyle. She remains an internet hit and the favourite to win the talent show.
