If you hate Simon Cowell, you will love this video and everything that ensues afterwards in Susan Boyle's life. Susan Boyle is a real-life testimony, a modern-day equivalent of David versus Goliath, only this time, the Goliath is society itself.
I have titled this post with a URL because this video set an online record for the most number of views in about 20 websites, crossing 100 million views long, long ago. In YouTube alone, as you see it has crossed 79 million views.
Simon Cowell embodies everything that is of this modern world - a crass businessman, crazy television personality, never missing an opportunity to sell television space. Susan Boyle on the other hand is a SIMPLE woman, just like you and me, with a dream - which she believed to be true. Susan Boyle's page on the Wikipedia makes up for very interesting reading, if you could find the time to read it.
The uniqueness of this video is the full range of emotions it presents from viewer chagrin to viewer ovation all in few minutes within few minutes. At 2:02 in the video you feel a hair-raising experience - because obviously we all find ourselves in the underdog's position. Don't we? Susan is a catharsis of our misgivings at our unfulfilled dreams. Susan's victory is our victory over the world, at least theatrically. That she achieves it so vividly makes the video all the more special and makes me cry every time I see it.
I am of course loaded with a well of emotions during my stay here in London, especially away from my family. Others reading this may not feel as empathetic as me. To be honest, I myself have had minuscule experiences of overturning people's reactions, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the worse. Susan's success raises a range of philosophical questions. Particularly in a world where if you are talented you gotta be attractive, or else you have a hard chance all through the ladder. That Susan achieved this feat right in the midst of the boiling furnace of reality TV where beauty alone sells - is a mockery, a rude awakening to a world long lost in the obsession of the perfect 'O'.
To be honest, I am not even particularly amused by the song itself, not even about Susan's singing prowess. It is the lessons which come from an unusual place called Reality television which unsettles me along with the 100 million viewers. The marketers think they have concocted the formula to success and suddenly a Susan Boyle appears and shakes them from the very foundation.
Unfortunately, when Susan Boyle released her début album last week, creating Amazon.com pre-sales records, they had a photo shoot of her in dresses which looked so misfitting on her. Presumably television did not and does not want to learn hard lessons. But we will.
We will never judge people on their appearance. I count myself blessed and lucky that some woman in this world made a brave, scary, foolhardy but voluntary decision to fall in love with me. I do not know how I would have faired in the arranged-marriage market, where the audience are gaping and howling like those in the Britain's God Talent show. At least at one point in time, somebody in my life made a decision not to go by physical appearance, but something else.
This video on the one hand gives us a rewarding sense that maybe one day we would get our day like Susan Boyle and that's the cheesy feeling why it became so popular. But I ask myself the other obvious question. How many Susan Boyles are WE missing in our everyday life when we sit as Simon Cowell and the audience?
I have titled this post with a URL because this video set an online record for the most number of views in about 20 websites, crossing 100 million views long, long ago. In YouTube alone, as you see it has crossed 79 million views.
Simon Cowell embodies everything that is of this modern world - a crass businessman, crazy television personality, never missing an opportunity to sell television space. Susan Boyle on the other hand is a SIMPLE woman, just like you and me, with a dream - which she believed to be true. Susan Boyle's page on the Wikipedia makes up for very interesting reading, if you could find the time to read it.
The uniqueness of this video is the full range of emotions it presents from viewer chagrin to viewer ovation all in few minutes within few minutes. At 2:02 in the video you feel a hair-raising experience - because obviously we all find ourselves in the underdog's position. Don't we? Susan is a catharsis of our misgivings at our unfulfilled dreams. Susan's victory is our victory over the world, at least theatrically. That she achieves it so vividly makes the video all the more special and makes me cry every time I see it.
I am of course loaded with a well of emotions during my stay here in London, especially away from my family. Others reading this may not feel as empathetic as me. To be honest, I myself have had minuscule experiences of overturning people's reactions, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the worse. Susan's success raises a range of philosophical questions. Particularly in a world where if you are talented you gotta be attractive, or else you have a hard chance all through the ladder. That Susan achieved this feat right in the midst of the boiling furnace of reality TV where beauty alone sells - is a mockery, a rude awakening to a world long lost in the obsession of the perfect 'O'.
To be honest, I am not even particularly amused by the song itself, not even about Susan's singing prowess. It is the lessons which come from an unusual place called Reality television which unsettles me along with the 100 million viewers. The marketers think they have concocted the formula to success and suddenly a Susan Boyle appears and shakes them from the very foundation.
Unfortunately, when Susan Boyle released her début album last week, creating Amazon.com pre-sales records, they had a photo shoot of her in dresses which looked so misfitting on her. Presumably television did not and does not want to learn hard lessons. But we will.
We will never judge people on their appearance. I count myself blessed and lucky that some woman in this world made a brave, scary, foolhardy but voluntary decision to fall in love with me. I do not know how I would have faired in the arranged-marriage market, where the audience are gaping and howling like those in the Britain's God Talent show. At least at one point in time, somebody in my life made a decision not to go by physical appearance, but something else.
This video on the one hand gives us a rewarding sense that maybe one day we would get our day like Susan Boyle and that's the cheesy feeling why it became so popular. But I ask myself the other obvious question. How many Susan Boyles are WE missing in our everyday life when we sit as Simon Cowell and the audience?
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ReplyDeleteThanks Rex for that awesome awesome.......piece of writing.....I always say this.....What the heart feels....the mind thinks......and the mouth says.....I guess in this case ur hand typed......You nearly got me thinking of the Susan Boyle in me......and the things I would like to try but never got to courage to....simple because 'me' is not what the world wants ...... But thanks......I havent heard of her......or heard of this news but now I know......and like you said....Susan IS the catharcis of our unfulfilled dreams.....and I'd like to ask your question in another way...Is there a Susan Boyle inside everyone of us?
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree to that, Emmi. When Simon asked Susan why she was not able to do anything big in music all these 47 years, she simply said, "Maybe I didnt get an opportunity". I realise it is sometimes as simple as that, just a lack of opportunity - a stage and an audience. And that should egg us on
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