Mercilessly teased as a child, singing sensation Susan Boyle now has fame and fortune, but it has taken a huge toll on her.
Look at her up there, shining like the star she never dared dream she would be. Susan Magdalene Boyle, coiffed and gleaming, the fastest-selling debut artist since records began and the woman who scored more than 100 million hits on YouTube. They’re even talking about her singing for Pope Benedict XVI when he visits Scotland later this year.
In pictures: Susan Boyle
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Did she ever imagine any of this might happen, back in her grim Scottish hometown of Blackburn, where she’d been teased without mercy all her life? Simple Susan, they called her, as she walked to and from the local Catholic school. For a change, they called her Susie Simple and laughed behind her back when she sang karaoke at the Happy Valley Inn, the local pub.
Apart from other volunteers at her church, Our Lady of Lourdes, Susan Boyle had no friends anyone can remember. Her one ally and most dedicated fan was her mother, Bridget, who died in 2007 at the age of 91. For five years, her mother drove Susan to her singing lessons every week in nearby Livingston and listened to her practise.
“Her mother loved to hear her daughter sing,” recalls professional voice coach Fred O’Neil. “Susan does have a lovely, natural voice. All I had to do was help her realise its true potential. Susan has a remarkable talent to communicate with an audience, to really feel the song.”
Bridget, from County Donegal in Ireland, had borne 10 children to her husband, Patrick, a miner. Susan, now 48, was the youngest and her learning difficulties are attributed to an oxygen shortage during birth. Susan was her mother’s carer up until her death and Susan’s record-breaking debut album, I Dreamed A Dream, is dedicated to her. “Susan was devastated by her mother’s death,” says John McKay, a fellow volunteer at the church, as he tidies up after morning Mass. “It was so hard for her then. But it’s not much better now she’s famous.
“She can’t sing in the choir anymore. She’s had to give up the [Catholic volunteer organisation] Legion of Mary. She can’t do the hospital visits and sing to the old people, or do the karaoke at the pub. For a while, she even had to go to another church on the other side of town because of all the people coming to stare at her.”
No wonder Susan Boyle told US talk-show host Larry King, “I won’t be lonely anymore”. It’s hardly surprising she told Oprah Winfrey that she has made millions of new friends (not to mention an estimated $6million) since her appearance last year on the television show Britain’s Got Talent. Susan is proud that people are moved to tears when they hear her sing. She wants to give something back, she says.
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