Smallscreen Features

Britain’s Got Talent 2010: Lacking a SuBo moment

By Ian Cullen May 30, 2010, 18:32 GMT

Scottish singer Susan Boyle performs on the first evening of the 2010 Sanremo Italian Song Festival at the Ariston Theatre in Sanremo, Italy, 16 February 2010. The festival runs until 20 February. EPA/CLAUDIO ONORATI

In 2009, Britain’s Got Talent got somewhat of a wake up call when Susan Boyle came onto the stage to audition with the song ‘I dream a dream.’

It was a moment which can only be described as television magic, and thus ‘A SuBo' was born. 'SuBo' being the nickname that the UK media bestowed upon her.

Within in less than 24 hours, Susan Boyle was an overnight sensation. Her video trending like wild fire on Youtube, and the international media wanting to know who this Scottish women was.

Inside of less than a week, Ms. Boyle had won over an international audience and was the subject of discussion on most entertainment news talk shows, and was much talked about on the Internet.

Like her predecessor Paul Potts, she put 'Britain’s Got Talent' on the international show biz map.

Sadly, Ms. Boyle never went onto win the UK based talent show, however in terms of publicity and celebrity, she is perhaps better known worldwide than Diversity, who won the competition.

In the UK, Britain’s Got Talent 2010 has been going on for more or less six weeks now, and we’re into the semi-finals which will be taking place all week.

But sadly we haven’t seen the likes of a Susan Boyle this year.

As hosts Ant and Dec pointed out recently while talking to The Sun newspaper, no one has come close to the worldwide recognition that Boyle got in such a short time last year.

"We almost had that moment with the singing accountant. He was almost there. He didn't look like he had that voice and you knew that it meant everything to him. It was very similar to Susan's audition,” said Dec (Declan Donnelly).

Ant (Anthony McPartlin) - added: "I'm quite happy that we haven't had that Susan Boyle moment this year. We wanted more variety. We wanted a comedian out there and we got one with Paul Burling."

The semi-finals of Britain’s Got Talent begin on Monday, and will continue throughout the week on ITV 1 at 7:30PM.

Monsters and Critics' contributing writer Ian Cullen is a former actor and community artist, and a lifetime fan of Science Fiction and television. He runs www.scifipulse.net  - a site, which follows the trends of science fiction television and movies.  He lives in Manchester, England.