Susan Boyle's appeal not so surprising

By April MacIntyre Apr 18, 2009, 17:28 GMT

Piers Morgan - Piers Morgan was gracious to quickly correct his remarks of Boyle on CNN\'s Larry King Show. © Tina Gill / PR Photos

In case you have been under a rock the last week, the big TV news and viral video sensation has been an unassuming Scottish spinster who walked onstage at "Britain's Got Talent" reality show auditions in Glasgow, and walked away with the entire world singing her praises.

Susan Boyle was nervous, and joked and flirted with both Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell, two of the three judges whose lack of a poker face registered an array of negative thoughts. 

Boyle sang her Les Miserables song, and immediately Ant and Dec, the amusing hosts of the show looked at the camera backstage and said, "you weren't expecting that now did ya, did ya?"

Nobody was.

Her video posted from Britain's Got Talent has exceeded 50 million views on YouTube.

Not just Britain, but Australia, New Zealand and America are courting and loving the story.  It is a classic tale of the Ugly Duckling, a local hero making it and never judging a book by its cover.  Unassuming and unfailingly polite, Boyle isn't demanding, making a scene, exposing herself or speaking crudely to make her mark on the smallscreen.  

The refreshing change hit a chord with everyone out there tired of the swill most reality shows offer. Appearance-saturated society took the simple, plain Boyle and her victory and celebrated the success of her dream, realized.

The song said it all; "I Dreamed A Dream" from Les Miserables.

Susan Boyle has no idea what YouTube is, and lives quietly in Blackburn, West Lothian, "a collection of...villages" she said.

Piers Morgan was gracious to quickly correct his remarks of Boyle on CNN's Larry King Show. 

"I'm sorry because we did not give you anything like the respect we should have done when you first came out," he told her. Referring to her appearance, he said: "We thought you were going to be a bit of a joke act, to be honest with you."

And mentioning fellow judge Simon Cowell, Morgan added: "It's fair to say that his eyes have been going ker-ching ever since Susan's performance."

Some cynical editorial has surfaced since the Boyle tsunami.  Her voice and singing "were off" said some, and there are calls to give her a "makeover."

Leave well enough alone. Susan Boyle is fine the way she is, and the majority of people out there following her know this.  Hope and humanity had pierced the shell of artifice, self-absorption and plastic surgery fakery, for at least a moment.