Susan Boyle stuck with her formula and sang fan favorite song “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables on the final of “Britain’s Got Talent” tonight. She did a great job as usual, but I wondered why she picked the same song that she auditioned with. Her version of “Memory” from Cats was a little shaky last week and that’s the only other song we’ve heard live from her. I was hoping to see something more new Susan, but she did “I Dreamed a Dream” again and stood there. It was a beautiful rendition of course, yet it seemed like too little from her after all the stories about how she was behaving badly and having problems. She is said to have had two separate outbursts this past week, one in which police were called, and judge Piers Morgan admitted that she was in tears at one point and wanted to drop out.
Susan was a little gruff during the question and answer period when some references were made to the media firestorm and the pressure she’s dealt with these past few weeks. It seemed somewhat awkward at points, specifically when she said “I’m among friends, am I not” and indicated the crowd. She drew a lot of praise from the judges, with Piers telling her that it was “the greatest performance I’ve seen in Britain’s Got Talent history.” She had a lot to deal with, and she stuck with what worked for her.
Boyle pushed through her problems and the negative media coverage and made it to the end tonight. As much as I admire the woman I came away from this last performance with the impression that she does one thing and she does it well, but that it might not be enough for her to win. There are 9 other acts tonight and while I haven’t been following closely I can’t help but think that someone else might go away with the title. We’ll see how it all turns out for her soon. The winner of the show will be announced at 10pm London time, which is 5pm EST. The winner will take home £100,000 ($159,000 USD) and get to sing for the queen.
Update: Susan places second:
The dance troupe Diversity won the competition, with Susan Boyle in second place. Here’s video of Diversity’s performance.
Diversity performs
The winner is announced
Thanks to Popeater for linking this.
Just as the homely person with a “brilliant” voice is a recurring BGT storyline, so is the final performance matching the audition piece. And it definitely works in most cases. The performer is dressed to the nines and has the advantage of a right-off-the-bat friendly audience. They’re always a ton more comfortable because they know the judges already like them. The camera focused almost entirely on her here too, with only a few cutaways to the judges, whereas during the audition there were gratuitous reaction shots from the mindless herd-like audience.
I’ve been fairly apathetic about SuBo so far, but I’ll concede that was a beautiful performance. I’m still not the biggest fan of her voice, but she’s performing the crap out of that song and it comes across as overwhelmingly genuine.
Oops … I see nothing shy and retiring about this woman, kudos to both her acting and singing talent 🙂
SUCK IT SUSAN 🙂
my favourites won <3
She did sing it better this time.
Yay! Diversity won! They were amazing, so pleased. 🙂
Kudos to Susan, she sang really well and came a very worthy second. Hope she does well out of it.
Aww. Poor Susan. Hopefully she gets some sort of recording deal out of this. She lost to some dance group called “Diversity”. Whatever. They won’t achieve anything beyond this, because there is no money in what they do. So, they money prize will be good for them. Susan, on the other hand, does have a chance to parlay this bit of fame and make money with her singing talent.
All the singers minus Hollie sang the song they sang in their first audition…so it wasn’t like it was just Susan. Its something that has been done by almost all contestants over the last 3 years.
As much as I adore Susan Boyle, I’m really happy Diversity won. Their acts are always extremely entertaining, technically flawless (yes, I know, I’m supposed to say that about the other dance group) and have a great sense of humor.
I am, however, certain that Susan will get signed and finally achieve her dream of being singer thanks to the show. Being a runner-up won’t hurt her chances at getting a contract in the entertainment business at all…
i don’t get it… this show only has two rounds? so it’s not like american idol where they drop out on a weekly basis?
Bellatrix: All the homely singers get record deals courtesy of Mr. Simon Cowell. That doesn’t guarantee a lifetime of A-list success (Paul Potts has faded into obscurity despite being the actual winner), but since Susan generated so much interest, she definitely has reason to hope.
Dang, my icon for myself and other 50ish women with bad hair and chunky bodies didn’t win. *sigh* Thanks goodness for plastic surgery, hair dressers and grandchildren!
Susan did really well for herself, I will buy her Cd and listen to her sing.
@ LISA: Aahahaa!!!
I never heard of Diversity before but those kids are very, very good. Congratulations to them.
I don’t think it’s a tragedy that she didn’t win. She has a phenomenal voice (which I love), but it’s very untrained, and her nervousness during the second performance made me so worried and uncomfortable, that I could barely watch the final with any kind of pleasure, thinking it’d be a repeat of last Sunday. Part of the job of any entertainer is to be at ease with whatever they’re doing in front of an audience – she needs to work on that. However, she has a brilliant career ahead of her. Someday she’ll sing in front of the Queen.
Old Hippy – don’t forget about obsessive exercise, permanent makeup, tan-in-a-bottle….I’m sure I’m leaving out a few…dozen!
Girlfriend could probably pump out show tunes albums and clean up. I just hope they don’t fleece her in the process.
I’m so glad Diversity won. I’m surprised Flawless weren’t in the Top 3.
Her voice is beautiful. but I think she made a mistake in singing the same song for the final. Makes it look like she’s a one trick pony.