How SuBo is already writing the next chapter of her real-life fairytale
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By Joe O'Shea
Wednesday Apr 21 2010
Unbelievably, this time last year we had never heard of Susan Boyle. Now the singer who shot to instant global fame after appearing on TV show Britain's Got Talent is penning her autobiography.
A cultural phenomenon from the moment she first walked onto Simon Cowell's stage, SuBo's every waking hour has been lived firmly in the media spotlight ever since.
Within nine days of her first appearance on BGT in April 2009, the video of her singing 'I Dreamed a Dream' had been viewed over 100 million times on YouTube (it's now got over 350 million views).
When Boyle had the temerity to change her hairstyle, it made the front pages of all the British tabloids.
She was invited to sit on Oprah's couch before she had even released her first album.
And when that album came out, after a barrage of stories about breakdowns and diva-ish tantrums, it went straight to number one in the UK and US.
Now the 49-year-old Scottish woman with the startling voice is ready to take the next, inevitable step in the celebrity game and release her official biography.
The book, The Woman I Was Born To Be, will arrive this autumn and should be the publishing phenomenon of the year.
"I'm writing this book to try to show that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover and I hope it will benefit other people," says Boyle.
On the face of it, it's standard "my struggle and how it can inspire others" celebrity biog stuff, with a clearly defined story arc that travels from obscurity -- the middle-aged spinster from the remote town of Blackburn in Scotland is the daughter of emigrants from Donegal -- to triumphant success via heartbreak and crushing set-backs.
What should set SuBo's biography apart, if it's handled by the right ghost-writer, is the unlikely nature of her success and the great personal fortitude she has shown in dealing with it.
In the days leading up to the BGT final (almost 17.5 million UK viewers saw her come second to dance group Diversity) the media was full of stories speculating about Boyle's "erratic behaviour" and "mental condition".
The day after the final, Boyle was admitted to The Priory, a private psychiatric clinic in London favoured by celebrities.
BGT producers TalkbackThames explained: "Following Saturday night's show, Susan is exhausted and emotionally drained."
A family member said; "she's been battered non-stop for the last seven weeks and it has taken its toll".
The story could have ended right there in The Priory, with Susan Boyle broken by sudden fame and the media's rush to report the backlash before she had even left the stage.
Simon Cowell, not usually celebrated for his touchy-feely side, offered to waive her contractual obligation to take part in the BGT tour.
But as the media continued to speculate about "SuBo's Breakdown", the shy spinster from West Lothian regrouped and summoned up the kind of resilience and courage you might expect from a showbiz veteran of decades.
Boyle emerged from The Priory to win acclaim on the BGT tour and record an album that sold two million copies in its first week on release, the fastest ever selling debut album from a female artist.
Now firmly established as an international star, Susan Boyle appears to have surrounded herself with the right people and has finally found the kind of stability that should guarantee continued success and, hopefully, personal happiness.
She is huge in the US, where her story of raw talent overcoming adversity chimes with the American dream.
One New York-based columnist wrote about how "the United States will always respond to the fairytale where the apparently unprepossessing suddenly becomes pretty, from Shrek to My Fair Lady".
In a promo for a recent episode of The Simpsons, Springfield's Got Talent, Homer talked about his dream to "become a great singer, like Boyle".
SuBo's story is a neat parable for our celebrity-obsessed times, when a TV talent search and the internet can make unlikely global superstars in days rather than the years of hard graft it once took.
But while we await the official story via a multi-million dollar publishing deal, the real interest will be in what happens next.
Boyle could retire tomorrow and live happily ever after in West Lothian with her millions.
TV talent search fame is fleeting. This month has already brought us "Taiwan's Susan Boyle"; 24-year-old Lin Yu-Chun has become the latest YouTube phenomenon after performing an unearthly version of 'I Will Always Love You' on the Taiwanese version of BGT.
Yu-Chun is in Los Angeles this week, doing the round of the network chat shows that were last week celebrating our own internet flash-in-the-pan stars, Crystal Swing.
SuBo's story should stand out from the celeb-bio pack because she has made the break into real, sustainable success and could, if she chooses, enjoy a lengthy career as a recording artist and performer.
This unlikely Cinderella story is set to run and even as she prepares to publish her first autobiography, Susan Boyle is already working on the next chapter.
- Joe O'Shea
Irish Independent
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