Read Online Susan Boyle by Alice Montgomery - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alice Montgomery
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comment about her appearance in middle age; it’s a fact. Susan was slim, had prominent cheekbones, clear skin and a mass of dark, curly hair. She sang with confidence and grace, and anyone viewing the video would have considered her quite a catch.
Her appearance in middle age showed, it seemed, how life had taken its toll. She had led a pretty selfless existence, spending almost her entire adult life doing charity work and looking after her mother, but seeing the video of a young Susan dispels any surprise about the fact that she scrubbed up well. The only surprise is that Susan didn’t attract more admirers in her youth, although when she left the stage, she is quite clearly seen receiving a kiss. Had she still looked like that when she appeared on Britain’s Got Talent , she would never have been on the receiving end of the comments she had to endure.
Gerry McGuinness, a school caretaker who took the video, and unearthed it twenty-five years later, certainly thought so. ‘I can remember that she was a shy young girl, but also very attractive back then - she turned a few heads when she came into the club,’ he told the Daily Record , which also put the clip on its website. ‘She was not even supposed to be singing, but agreed to perform for the Tam O’Shanter team because someone had dropped out. Even back then I don’t think anyone expected too much from her because she was so shy, but when she began singing people took notice. I watched Susan on Britain’s Got Talent but didn’t recognize her as the girl from my video until a relation called and asked if I still had the tape.’
The answer was that he did. ‘When I realized who it was, I called my son Jamie in Wishaw and told him I was sending up the video,’ Gerry continued. ‘It’s great Susan is finally getting some recognition. She is a great singer and it seems right that at some point she would get the credit she deserved.’
Jamie was also pretty staggered. ‘It is just amazing that nobody realized what a talent she was until now,’ he said. ‘When you watch the video, it seems so obvious that she was born to be a star.’
The video was, in some ways, just a forerunner of Susan’s extraordinary performance two and a half decades later. Everyone who had known her as a young girl talked constantly about her shyness, which had clearly been a burden she had been forced to overcome. But watching her perform all those years ago, the shyness is not apparent. There’s something slightly modest about the way she looks as she sings, but she’s able to put body and soul into the song and immerse herself in it entirely. As she herself said after she became famous, when she sang, she was able to communicate with the world in a way she couldn’t through speech. And just as in ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, she really inhabited the song ‘Memories’ and made it her own, another quality that made her stand out from the rest. The song is about a woman looking back over a past love affair - something it was well known that Susan had never experienced - and yet she sang the song with real emotion and pathos. It could have been her own memories she was looking back on that night, and a love that had once burned brightly but was now lost.
Her previous shyness only served to highlight how far Susan had come. If it was still there - and it was - she was hiding it well: for all the strain of being under constant surveillance, there were still plenty of cheery waves to photographers, journalists, passers-by and well-wishers. Perhaps twenty-five years previously Susan had hoped that someone would see her performance at Motherwell FC’s Fir Park Social Club and make her a star: she’d certainly had to wait a long time to be recognized since then. Nor was the wait over, for Susan had still not been allowed to sing publicly since her first audition, and many surrounding her feared that if she wasn’t allowed to do something soon she’d miss her chance.
Susan proved
Her appearance in middle age showed, it seemed, how life had taken its toll. She had led a pretty selfless existence, spending almost her entire adult life doing charity work and looking after her mother, but seeing the video of a young Susan dispels any surprise about the fact that she scrubbed up well. The only surprise is that Susan didn’t attract more admirers in her youth, although when she left the stage, she is quite clearly seen receiving a kiss. Had she still looked like that when she appeared on Britain’s Got Talent , she would never have been on the receiving end of the comments she had to endure.
Gerry McGuinness, a school caretaker who took the video, and unearthed it twenty-five years later, certainly thought so. ‘I can remember that she was a shy young girl, but also very attractive back then - she turned a few heads when she came into the club,’ he told the Daily Record , which also put the clip on its website. ‘She was not even supposed to be singing, but agreed to perform for the Tam O’Shanter team because someone had dropped out. Even back then I don’t think anyone expected too much from her because she was so shy, but when she began singing people took notice. I watched Susan on Britain’s Got Talent but didn’t recognize her as the girl from my video until a relation called and asked if I still had the tape.’
The answer was that he did. ‘When I realized who it was, I called my son Jamie in Wishaw and told him I was sending up the video,’ Gerry continued. ‘It’s great Susan is finally getting some recognition. She is a great singer and it seems right that at some point she would get the credit she deserved.’
Jamie was also pretty staggered. ‘It is just amazing that nobody realized what a talent she was until now,’ he said. ‘When you watch the video, it seems so obvious that she was born to be a star.’
The video was, in some ways, just a forerunner of Susan’s extraordinary performance two and a half decades later. Everyone who had known her as a young girl talked constantly about her shyness, which had clearly been a burden she had been forced to overcome. But watching her perform all those years ago, the shyness is not apparent. There’s something slightly modest about the way she looks as she sings, but she’s able to put body and soul into the song and immerse herself in it entirely. As she herself said after she became famous, when she sang, she was able to communicate with the world in a way she couldn’t through speech. And just as in ‘I Dreamed A Dream’, she really inhabited the song ‘Memories’ and made it her own, another quality that made her stand out from the rest. The song is about a woman looking back over a past love affair - something it was well known that Susan had never experienced - and yet she sang the song with real emotion and pathos. It could have been her own memories she was looking back on that night, and a love that had once burned brightly but was now lost.
Her previous shyness only served to highlight how far Susan had come. If it was still there - and it was - she was hiding it well: for all the strain of being under constant surveillance, there were still plenty of cheery waves to photographers, journalists, passers-by and well-wishers. Perhaps twenty-five years previously Susan had hoped that someone would see her performance at Motherwell FC’s Fir Park Social Club and make her a star: she’d certainly had to wait a long time to be recognized since then. Nor was the wait over, for Susan had still not been allowed to sing publicly since her first audition, and many surrounding her feared that if she wasn’t allowed to do something soon she’d miss her chance.
Susan proved
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