Chances are that by now you are one of the tens of millions of people who have viewed Susan Boyle's jawdropping performance on BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT (probably at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY, though there is a higher-quality version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PPlkOyaqaQ). This clip went viral with a rapidity astonishing even for the 2009 internet, and even as I write, people continue to email it to their friends, to repost it on the web, to broadcast news stories about it on radio and television, and to write about it in newspapers and ... in blogs like this.[[1]] A quick search on YouTube will reveal that some of them even post videos of the reactions of their friends and families as they watch the Susan Boyle clip.Two details very commonly remarked upon in reporting on this phenomenon (and it is surely 'phenomenal' in the colloquial sense of that word) are [a] the compulsion to watch it over and over again, and [b] the tears that it provokes in its viewers. I am fascinated by both of these, but especially the latter, and curious about its causes. I am pretty sure that one of them is the heart-tugging sweep of the cinematic, John-Williams-like orchestral music that accompanies the 'Broadway anthem' Susan has chosen to perform: 'I Dreamed A Dream' (from Les Misérables; music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, libretto by Alain Boublil). But I am equally certain that there are other factors at play here.
Watching this unassuming middle-aged woman stand up before an audience of many thousands, open her mouth, and pour this remarkable singing out into the air is astounding, for a variety of reasons, some of which have been commented on numerous times by now: first, one experiences a satisfaction akin to Schadenfreude as this audience's smug, condescending expressions turn to shock, then wonder, then thrill, as a number of realizations dawn on them: they have simply not taken the measure of this person; the sounds filling their ears provoke pure, intense pleasure; and they are in attendance upon a moment of rare and perhaps historic beauty. Second, one watches with the awareness that this is a classic 'underdog' situation: she who was despised and scorned succeeds, against all odds, in carrying the day. And third -- this is not something that has been widely commented on, if at all -- the medium is (at least partly) the message: the lyrics of the song are, precisely, about dreaming that one could achieve a better life.
I find it difficult to believe that Susan Boyle has chosen this song just for its music. In just a few comments before and after her performance, she sketches in the contours of her own life; one can easily fill these in further, by some quick reading on Wikipedia and in the rash of news reports that appears to be multiplying hourly about her.[[2]] And as one ponders these, one begins to surmise that perhaps the lyrics of that song are particularly meaningful to her.
Susan is the youngest of nine children; lives alone with her cat in a small village in Scotland; is currently unemployed. She was the caregiver for her mother, who recently died at the age of 91. As of the evening of her performance on BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT, she had never been married.[[3]] We are told that people in the village 'made fun of her' at school (though not why specifically), and that she had never had the opportunity to see if she could fulfil her dream of becoming a professional singer.
The contrast between all of this everydayness (and sadness) and the glamour of her night on stage could hardly be more dramatic. Maybe we should not be surprised -- and surely it is not coincidental -- that when Susan went before the cameras on BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT, she sang:
I dreamed a dream in time gone byIf this woman is just now getting her first shot at success at age 47, it is a safe bet that she knows a thing or two about having one's hopes torn apart, one's dreams turned to shame.
When hope was high, and life worth living;
[...]
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dreams to shame.
Susan's is not the best possible performance of 'I Dreamed A Dream.' It is arguably not even the best available on YouTube.[[4]] But I think it is better than those one can find online by Patti LuPone, who created the role in 1985, or even by Elaine Paige, the legendary singer/actor whom Susan aims someday to rival. And anyway that is not really the point. The point is that Susan Boyle is at a liminal moment in her lifetime. Against all odds, public success of a kind and degree vouchsafed to very few of us is within her grasp. Will she be this year's winner on BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT? And even if not, will she get the record deal and the world tour prophesied for her? If not, the closing lyrics of the song,
I had a dream my life would becould end up sounding bitterly prophetic.
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seems
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed.
I am sure that most people, like me, hope that she wins the entire competition. I hope she also gets that record deal and becomes a millionaire. But in a moral sense, Susan Boyle has already won a great victory: as Patricia Williams astutely observes, 'the reason Boyle is a heroine has little to do with her transforming any aspect of herself. Rather, it was she who transformed the audience, it was she who challenged their beliefs.'[[5]] In Lisa Schwarzbaum's words, she has 'reordered the measure of beauty.'[[6]] In a world so hasty, so focused on superficials, and so pervasively cruel, that is no small achievement.
NOTES
[[1]] See, for just three important examples, Lisa Schwarzbaum, 'Why we watch ... and weep,' Ian Youngs, 'How Susan Boyle won over the world,' and Sarah Lyall, 'Unlikely Singer is YouTube Sensation.'
[[2]] Indeed Susan already has her own Wikipedia page, at the bottom of which are links to many, many online references to her.
[[3] She also claimed that she had 'never been kissed,' though this may have been a joke.
[[4]] For some strong (professional) competition, see Ruthie Henshall's performance at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt-IBJpEMzA.
[[5]] Patricia Williams, 'I know those sneers. I've heard them too.'
[[6]] Schwarzbaum (note 1 supra).
3 comments:
I think the world needs many more Susan Boyles. They might be able to bring about the sort of social metanoia that modern culture so desperately needs right now. The first time I watched the video I was in a rush, so I didn't catch all of the snarky catcalls from members of the audience or just how dramatic of a shift in their impression of her there was, but after taking a moment to sit and focus (that itself is a bit telling), I admit I too had a tear or two start welling up. I think she humbles all of us in a way that we all need to be humbled.
I was also reminded of William Hung, the man that appeared on American Idol a few years ago and sang Ricky Martin's She Bangs. The William Hung event seems to me to be the antithesis of the Susan Boyle phenomenon; I think because peoples' perceptions of him were only solidified after his performance, their judgments about him, mixed with both pity and mockery, were confirmed in their minds. Then for probably weeks after his performance, I noticed how his unique, valuable, and inestimable personhood became the object of society's cruel amusement. I can recall all the subsequent videos, ads, and sponsors that came out of the woodwork, that latched onto him, objectified, used and disposed of him.
Hopefully William got something out of the experience and laughed right along with everyone...all the way to the bank!
But where William was a victim of society, Susan Boyle became its conqueror. I really hope many more like her appear and shatter the current widespread preconceptions that we all seem to have to some degree or another.
over 103 MILLION views on youtube as of today.
plus, i see that susan has had a makeover. i hope the dizzying stardom doesn't ruin her life for her.
OK, it's official. looks do matter [per the nytimes].
Post a Comment