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Incredible--You Won't Believe It
Posted by PotatoChef • 4/15/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: judge, simon
Have you ever judged a book by its cover?
Watch as Simon Cowell squirms out of the corner he put himself into.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
User Comments
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My son showed me this earlier. What a beautiful voice she has-
I think the inspiration is more about somebody who has to ignore others to show she has what it takes. She believes in herself. Does not care others are laughing at her. There is a great lesson to learn from this lady.
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Wow -- I guess you just never can judge a package by its cover!-
It really is a fools game to judge a package by its cover. But really this video gave me goosebumps. And I'm not even a goose!
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If you have not seen this....It is a must watch.
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Am I the only one who didn't lol! I am delighted she busted stereotypes, but I wasn't surprised. I grew up with women like her in the Northeast of England and they were self effacing, full of character and hidden talents. As soon as I heard her talking I knew she was a woman after my own heart
Not that I can sing 
but yes her voice is beautiful.-
I was saying this today to someone else-- I find it funny the surprise at the concept that less-than-conventionally-attractive people have great things within them...
Or, rather, the fact that less-than-conventionally-attractive women have great things in them...
Since for years we've had male singers who aren't especially stereotypically handsome, and no one has batted an eye.
I hope this lady continues to please ears, and change minds.
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All I can say is You Go Girl! -
There is a fan club site.
www.susan-boyle.com/
There is a video interview and she is wonderfully pragmatic and down to earth, traits I really admire.-
They did a quick piece on this on the radio last night, so I got to hear part of the performance. She does have a lovely voice, but it bothered me, as well, that she received such a crappy reception. Especially on a show like this one, where you would think amazing things would regularly come out of surprising packages, the judges should withhold their, well, judgement until they see what the person or group can do. Would just a little graciousness hurt, or don't TV audiences rate that highly enough?
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Tears fell down on my cheeks when I watched the video. It's really great! She has better voice than other famous singers. -
Don't see the big deal, she is no better than a million other people it's just because she looks like a crashed Volkswagen that people are amazed.
Singers like her are ten a penny.-
Yes, but a million other people don't put themselves out there and face a critical judgmental panel of judges or audience. It takes courage to put yourself out there, especially when you don't fit the stereotype and you are over 40.
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Yeah good on her but at the end of the day it's a crappy piece of ITV fluff, it's not like she is going to be singing at La Scala next weekend or even play the lead in a West end musical.
So excuse me for being cynical but so what? -
how do you know she won't move onto a career like Paul Potts. Even if it doesn't work out, hey she gave it her best shot, at least she can say she tried which is more than a lot of others can say.
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Who is Paul Potts?
The very fact I have to ask that says it all really. -
He was the winner of the first series Britain's Got Talent
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DelJrP3P7tA
Here is the wiki entry about him
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Potts
"He won the 2009 Echo Award for Best Male International Artist on 21 February 2009." -
Well yeah it's nice a Downs syndrome lad can go on TV and make records but I mean who will buy them really? In ten years time he is gonna be ten stone fatter with a bad hair piece singing "Nessun dorma" in the Kon tiki lounge of a travel tavern on the outskirts of Rhyl.
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You're in an uncharacteristically nasty mood today, Pink Donkeh. Allow people their joys... Nothing is forever.
If we looked at things from the perspective that nothing lasts, we'd never attempt anything. -
What's Downs Syndrome got to do with it? Oh yeah nothing. -
Don't mean to be nasty about it but as I said so what? I am sick to death of these types of programs.
I am not going to pretend I like or even admire them for their "courage" if people enjoy those programs fine but lets not pretend this woman is the new Callas or this Potts fellow is the new Caruso.
They are both decent average singers and if they sang Karaoke I would gladly applaud them but I wouldn't pay money to see either of them and in the case of this potts fellow why would I want to listen to someone mimic Pavarotti. -
@Crpitt
You're right It has nothing to do with anything I was just trying to make a point and it was in bad taste. -
Maybe your problem is you watch or watched them? I don't know, I have never watched the show or the American equivalent (if there is one).
"am not going to pretend I like or even admire them for their "courage" "
That is up to you, but you know being an artist and putting myself out there and facing some horrid criticism and ridicule for some of my work I've done I kind of appreciate the courage it takes. -
No I have never watched the show and as I said before If people like it fine.
As for the courage issue, yes it does take courage to put a piece of you soul up for public inspection and I admire anybody who will do that but I do not equate televised Karaoke with art.
Are people who do this every night of the week in bars all over the world courageous artists? -
"Are people who do this every night of the week in bars all over the world courageous artists?"
They are having a bit fun in a pub setting, having a few drinks, not the same as going into front of thousands of people on television. -
If I bounce a ball in front of twenty people, fifty people or fifty thousand it's still bouncing a ball.
Am I to be applauded for my courage in upping the number of people who watch me bounce a ball?
Because I have done my ball bouncing in front of television cameras am I now an artist?
Or am I just a man bouncing a ball like I did the day before? -
She wasn't bouncing a ball, she was singing. Gosh aningeniousname, lighten up already! she is doing something she loves, other people liked it, she might be able to have a career as a result. Whether it is great of not is subjective but the bottom line is SHE is happy. So keep bouncing your ball if it makes you happy.
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I have said constantly that if people like it fine, that's great for them and her. My original point was it's not incredible and I do believe it.
Typing this has made me drop my ball and it's rolled under the sofa so expect to be billed in the next few days for one rubber ball. -
well you know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and typing and playing with yer balls is not a good thing. concentrate pink one, concentrate!
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@anin Its nothing I would rush out an buy either, also cant stand shows like that, but something about that performance was just lovely.
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I just don't see it I thought she was very average and people's responses to it seem mostly to be based on how she looks, which is quite patronising.
I stand by my initial reaction that it was mediocre, if she had been a good looking twenty year old girl no one would have batted an eyelid and the judges would have shouted "Next!" halfway through. -
Maybe its because your a bit of a muso?
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I don't know it might be that but I don't think so because I am a fan of lots of singers who are technically awful.
Actually it's probably the fact that her voice has absolutely no character or soul to it, she sounds like a parrot repeating what she has heard "proper" singers do on records.
I would rather hear an original technically bad singer than a cold rendering of this woman's record collection. -
I'm with anin on this; the so called "talent" which these shows epitomise is no different to some run down seaside resort talent contest. But despite contempt towards these abysmal television shows, at least they are far more entertaining than reality programming, namely Big Brother.
Speaking of which, how did Jade Goody go from talentless hack to famous talentless hack? It certainly wasn't for selling records or anything, was it? Mind you, she did insult a Bollywood actress and she also cheated on her boyfriend whilst on Big Brother. Wow, what an awesome display of talent.
After Big Brother, she had the audacity to call herself dignified.
Dignified, my arse. Personally, I'm glad she's dead. -
Exactly, it's as though we are meant to believe that the very presence of television cameras can turn the mediocre into art.
We are then supposed to sit up an applaud like trained seals at this fantastic alchemy.
As I have said countless times already I have no problem with people liking this woman or buying any subsequent records she releases but what she and the other people on these shows are doing is nothing more than muzak and to point this out is like claiming the emperor has no clothes.
Don't get me started on Big brother or Jade Goody! -
ZOMG the emperor has no clothes!!!111one1!!1! -
Turn away quick you might see his royal extension!
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Cover it with something! Think of the children!
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You want him to cover it with children?! :O
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Of course! There isn't anything else around!
Timmy, get over here!
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That was awesome! -
>@anin when you say "I just don't see it I thought she was very average and people's responses to it seem mostly to be based on how she looks, which is quite patronising."
Yes maybe but would you dare to do so if you had that look ? It's what it's about: courage to fight other's people preconceived ideas.-
Well to me a person's looks in no way effect how I view whatever talent they may or may not have. Some of the most talented people in history have been mingers.
So I don't see how that is in any way relevant to whether or not she is talented.
This maybe be a revelation to you but the majority of the world are not beauty queens and they have the "courage" to do whatever it is they do.
If she had crawled up there with no legs and only one badly damaged arm and a horribly burnt face I may have agreed with you but she didn't. -
There weren't so many like her that postulate to go on this TV show otherwise she wouldn't create such a spontaneous ovation. Of course a few like you have the right not to react that way with your own rationality, but the fact is she has made a breakthrough and it's definitely a fairy tale that became real.
It is unexpectation that creates emotion and as this emotion is positive it makes people feel good to discover they themselves recognized they had pre-conceived ideas.
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I'm with Anin here, the fact that she can sing and had the guts to do it on tv is not what's amazing...the fact that everyone assumed that because she wasn't physically attractive that she wouldn't have any talent is what is amazing. People shouldn't be impressed with her, they should be ashamed of themselves for being such shallow nasty people.
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You actually make an excellent point.
I did think her voice was far above average--I thought she had a lot of soul singing that song. But then, I am always the champion of the underdog. -
I imagine that's what most of the fuss is about...embarrassment at prejudging her. If she had been dreadful they would have felt fine for laughing at her appearance, but she was good, and they realised how crappy it was to mock someone because she didn't conform to their idea of what people should look like. I mean she was certainly good, but I doubt she'd have gotten a standing ovation if they hadn't been scoffing and rolling their eyes a minute earlier.
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Another excellent point. And I agree that she would have likely not gotten a standing O if she looked like Angelina Jolie.
I liked her attitude--I love women with brass balls--and she seemed to have those. -
I'd definitely rather have a drink with her than Simon Cowell or any of the scoffing nitwits on the audience...
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It's interesting though that the folks from the UK here are largely the ones saying "meh, so what?", and I think that has to do with something ingrained in the US culture versus the UK...
Here on our TV in the US, there's just such a premium put on pretty people, and there's a lot less emphasis on that for actors/performers from the UK. I know this is a UK program we're talking about. But here in the US, we have a lot of folks who can't really act or sing, but are the current standard of beauty. So it seems we excuse them their lack of inherent talent.
So, while I think many folks know very well we ourselves aren't up to Hollywood or Broadway standards, we find ourselves cheering to FINALLY see someone who isn't gorgeous in the spotlight. -
it's because we all have bad teeth here so everyone on British TV is ugly...
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Hey, hey, now, that's not what I was meaning. I was meaning the folks on our TV are typically very plastic. I mean, Courtney Cox was having surgery when she was, say, 28.
I watch a lot of BBCAmerica (entirely too much, really) and I just think the emphasis on programs is more on the character than the typical plastic Hollywood idea of what's beautiful right now. -
I was only kidding...
We certainly have more real-looking women on tv...they're usually the attractive type, but they are the real attractive type rather than shiny shiny barbie doll types... -
"But here in the US, we have a lot of folks who can't really act or sing, but are the current standard of beauty. So it seems we excuse them their lack of inherent talent."
Yeah and you can have the bloody lot back as well. Thanks to all that "Smash US Hit Show" bollocks, British television has transformed into something utterly repugnant.
I saw something advertised on the telly a while back called, "Paris Hilton's New British Best Friend" wherein the train wreck gets a bunch of superficial tarts to win the chance of being her friend. What a load of rubbish.
Honestly, America sucks. -
That's a very relevant point Thrift, you never see ordinary people on American TV unless they are being ridiculed or made over.
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It's a shame you hold back so much, Qelqoth. You'll get ulcers and high blood pressure keeping so much inside all the time.
Siuil- I agree, it's not that they're not attractive. They just look more like someone you might actually know. I appreciate that, actually. But it's surprising when that's not what you're used to seeing here in the US. -
Qelqoth is trying his hardest to be edgy, he's just a troll...
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That's a bit harsh Sil, Quelqoth isn't a troll.
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He was being a complete troll the other day on another thread
www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/the-movie-game -
Edgy? Bollocks. Point is that all these frigging lame American shows are being shown over here. Back in the day, television over here used to rule.
Monty Python, Spitting Image, Fawlty Towers and other such shows - they were top quality entertainment. None of that politically correct toss either.
There are a few exceptions with American television - South Park being one of them - but all those shows like Sex in the City and Ugly Betty?
They all make me want to spew in my mouth.
Oh and SiuilARuin; whilst we are on the subject of things that undoubtedly suck, your silly thread is one of them. You may think that playground games are the dog's bollocks and all that but in all honesty, they're stupid. -
Is that vulgar language I see on this thread?
Ooh, someone report her dirty, potty mouth!
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Not my style of music, but I was glad to see this under-appreciated, ordinary person show up a cynical crowd and wow the judges.
There is a cynical bit of editing in this, though. The show's producers could just as easily made the woman look ridiculous or mocked her. Instead, they chose to tug at our heartstrings and continue to play the ground swelling instrumental music of Les Miserables in the background to milk the moment for all it's worth. THEY chose to frame her as an underdog and set her up as a hero. It does not take away from the lady's triumph, but we, the TV/Internet audience, are being manipulated.
Also, I'd like to see more pink aardvarks singing on YouTube. This is an undervalued sub musical genre that's day has come. But what, I wonder, would the pink donkeh sing?-
I meant to mention the emotional editing earlier, I totally agree with you on that it is a very cynical piece of editing.
I have no idea what a PINK Aardvark would sing on youtube but this LAVENDER Aardvark would of course sing his theme tune "Non, je ne regrette rien" -
I thought it was "The Little Sparrow." Now I know that Edith Piaf should have been called "The Little Aardvark."
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Well before she was known as "The little sparrow" she was called "Edith la ant sniffer" by the kids at school.
People in Paris were still quite Aardvarkist in those days, it's not like thses enlightened times were a lavender Aardvark can chat to a hotel as an equal. -
Anin, I'd love to have you come stay, sometime! I'll even give you the AAA discount (American Aardvark Association).
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More proof that society's view of attractiveness is fully of empty, shallow bull-ish.
She sounds beautiful! -
"It's a shame you hold back so much, Qelqoth. You'll get ulcers and high blood pressure keeping so much inside all the time."
Enlighten me, ThriftShopPedantic. How exactly am I holding back here?-
She was being sarcastic.
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Captain Obvious saves the day.
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Need some help pulling the stick out your ass?
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I assure you, it's quite comfortable.
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I was shocked too!! She's rocking some hardcore show tunes. I really wasn't expecting that. Her voice is beautiful.
Wrench-
Despite her looks...which are basically average...I think anybody who got up and sang as well as she did would have suprised everybody.
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For some reason whenever I read about this woman and her experience... if I hadn't seen her I would think she was this old hag with filthy stained ripped clothes and questionable hygiene... etc.etc.
Honestly I don't think she looked bad at all.. her personality was very original and refreshing!
Since when are we all suppose to look like the overly made-up teenagers/young women with clothes made to fit a five year old... that were making such disqusting faces... in one of the audience shots.
To me... they (the young women/teens in the audience) had a common cookie cutter look, and were desperately in need of a mature women's advice on how to behave properly, makeup tips and what to wear. Maybe they are the nicest women in the world... but by watching their behavior... it can be questionable.
But then again with the judges reactions, not so much the woman.. both males... no class... disgusting... unprofessional behavior.. I think they both need to be removed from the judging panel. Makes me question the reasons behind some of thier previous scores, which in a way... I can see why they (teens/young women) would behave that way... what examples! ugh!
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