Susan Boyle: Singing Sensation, Disability Pride

New at Penny for your thoughts (4/23/09):

The Triumph of Susan Boyle and Why So Many of Us Are Still Celebrating!
 

My introduction to Susan Boyle's angelic voice came, as it did for so many others, via a link to the YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY that arrived  inside an e-mail message on the Monday following her April 11 appearance on an "American Idol" kind of show that had run on British TV.  Although the e-mail was clearly "Off Topic" for the list-serv, not one person on the e-mail list complained!  And every single one of us has felt enriched by experiencing Susan Boyle's triumph at the Britain's Got Talent competition ever since!  Most of us, I'm sure, sent that link on to friends and family, which accounts for the more than 39 million hits at YouTube already, and saved the link in our "Favorites List for a future day when we know we'll need a spiritual lift!

Why the excitement?  Why has the middle-aged woman described by the person who sent me the link as "looking like Mrs. Doubtfire,"with the seemingly incongruously angelic voice touched so many people, and sparked dinner-table and water-cooler conversations all over the country and the world?  She truly does have a voice like an angel.  And "I Dream A Dream" from "Les Miserables," the song she chose to sing is beautiful, the kind of thing that tugs at the heartstrings of even the most cynical among us. But, that's not all.
 
I think it's because every single one of us who has ever had a moment of self doubt about the way we look, or sound, or come across, rejoices when we watch the video.  We feel as though we are rejoicing right along with Ms. Boil as we celebrate her courage and her talent, and her triumph; and any misgivings about her appearance, her life in a remote and unsophisticated village in Scotland, her mostly stay-at-home existence of giving care to another simply fall away because her talent erases them all!
 
When Susan Boyle shows up on stage, many of us, especially those of us who have coped with our own disabilities and dealt with the hurtful words and attitudes of unthinking classmates or malicious bullies, feel an instant empathy with her.  She is not beautiful.  Her answers to the questions the panel asks are neither sparkling nor sophisticated.  It's obvious to those of us who are way too attuned to being misjudged, prejudged, and expected to fail that what is about to happen will make us cringe.  We hold our collective breath and clench our fists in anxious anticipation of what we know is about to happen.  We are prepared to feel sorry for Ms. Boyle, and, in turn, to feel sorry for ourselves for all the times when someone made fun of us – for tripping, or saying the wrong thing, or getting a horrible grade, or missing the ball, or spilling ketchup on the front of our shirt, or embarrassing a mother or a father or a sibling or an instantly former best friend.  When Susan sings that gorgeous song and the audience bursts straight away into jubilant astonished applause, and the judges are nearly speechless with amazement, we are overcome with relief, and vindication, and jubilation, and feeling just as ecstatic as Susan, herself,  must have felt at that moment!
 
Susan's very public triumph seems almost like our own personal triumph, especially for those of us who have worried that our disabilities set us too far apart from what is normal, or that others would define us by our dis-abilities, instead of all the talents and abilities that are a truer definition of the women and men we actually are.  READ MORE HERE:  http://tinyurl.com/ceydlm 

Enjoy, and if you haven't visited the YouTube link, do take a minute and revel in the experience.
Penny

>>> For the Full Column

Added by Sarah Peterson, JFA Moderator:

Additionally, Ms. Boyle has publicly disclosed her own disability and stated, "I want to raise awareness - I want to turn my disability into ability."  From BBC NEWS.

>>>For more on Susan Boyle's disability

Comment Below: How has this remarkable woman's experience has inspired you?

Comments

[Linda Hendricks]

I am writing for a person in Puerto Rico who needs a wheelchair for her daughter who has spina bifida. The girl is getting ready for school and they cannot afford a wheelchair.

Do you have any resources that I can pass along to this family?

Linda In NC

[Rental Property Chicago]

Its been months now since the first time I saw Ms.Susan Boyle in YouTube singing that heart warming song from Les Miserables. Every now and then, if I needed a 10-minute break from my work surfing the net, I would always go back to Ms. Boyle's youtube. Her voice warms my heart, the reaction of the people and the judges still amuses me, never fails to give me a smile. But most of all, it always gives me a hope that someday my dream will come true just like hers. Thank you for that inspiration.

[Rådgivende ingeniør]

Susan Boyle was very lucky to won in that big British show. I hope that she can help other people that needs help and lack of everything.

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to me the image of this women has been so used to idealize something, in other words has beed marketed, you can see Susan's image in many places, do publicity.