Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Susan Boyle's Dream

I shall be shutting down soon for yet another installment of Pessach; after the holiday I expect to be very busy with a number of concurrent projects and probably will cut down blogging for a while (I know, I've said this in the past, too). So I'm leaving with a magnificent story, quite off topic, for which I got permission from the editorial board.

Last night we saw the 2006 German film Four Minutes (Vier Minuten). It's a powerful film about a deeply troubled young woman with a troubling story, a troubling old passive Nazi, and a troubled country. The young woman has the gift of magnificent music, though its true measure becomes clear only in the final four minutes of the film.

Still, it's a film. Fiction. Susan Boyle's story, which exploded onto the Internet this week, is true. A few elements must have been contrived, television being what it is, but the fundamentals can't have been. The woman was set up as a fool to be laughed at but didn't lose her dignity; once she blew us all away she didn't, either. So set aside 8 minutes and watch (the embedding has been disabled, so follow the link). And then watch again.

9 comments:

Fabián said...

Thank you for the link. Very emotional.

Geoff M said...

It seems "Britain's Got Talent" has a ...talent for this sort of thing. A couple of years ago, it was Paul Potts, the unassuming cell-phone salesmen, who stood up there and shocked everyone with a beautiful rendition of "Nessum Dorma."

Unknown said...

I've been watching it again and again - and I can't get enough. I hope her dream comes true!

Gavin said...

Beautiful, she just nailed that song. I closed my eyes & played it again with the volume cranked up, she could break glass with that voice.

What disgusts me about this is the reactions from the mainstream media. It was revealed early in the piece that she'd been the subject of bullying throughout her life, and no-one seems to have gotten the message. Every media article contains snide remarks about her looks, precisely the comments that have hurt her so much since she was a child. What is Susan Boyle going to be thinking when she reads that she's frumpy, ugly, hairy, with squashed face, unruly teeth, looking like a piece of pork sitting on a doily and all the other hurtful remarks made by reporters & culumnists.

This goes to show that the people who work in the media today are the very bullies who make the lives of the Susan Boyles of this world so miserable. They really are a disgrace.

Gavin

Meryl Yourish said...

Yes, it made me tear up both times I watched it.

Good for her. And what a voice... now I have to go listen to Les Miz again.

Anonymous said...

Gavin,
you are so right, right, right ....
and I hope that Susan Boyle will manage to keep the stylists from plucking her healthy looking eye brows
and:
it is high time we all start looking at our neighbours and ourselves through different lenses than the standard ones as determined by media hyped "celebrities" and learn again to go for a beautiful smile rather than a perfect hair style
rgds,
Silke

Anonymous said...

listen to this song, if that is really the same woman than she was in 1999 even much much better than her latest performance
enjoy!
rgds,
Silke
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/04/16/exclusive-susan-boyle-s-first-ever-song-release-revealed-listen-to-it-here-86908-21283564/

Anonymous said...

listen to this song, if that is really the same woman than she was in 1999 even much much better than her latest performance
enjoy!
rgds,
Silke
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2009/04/16/exclusive-susan-boyle-s-first-ever-song-release-revealed-listen-to-it-here-86908-21283564/

Gavin said...

That's so sad Silke, that someone who can sing like that in her thirties has been kept hidden away all these years. We've missed out on her voice maturing, more than twenty years of great music lost forever. Cry me a river was wonderful, shows what her voice was like ten years ago.

One can't avoid the thought that there's many more Susan Boyles out there all over the world who never get the chance, and we're the ones who lose from it.

Cheers, Gavin