Authors: John McShane
‘It has reminded me bizarrely of the way the Gospels speak of Jesus. On the one hand they claim he had an authority which was utterly convincing. Yet at the same
time he is identified with the broken figure from the book of Isaiah. One with no beauty that we should desire, despised and rejected of men, one from whom men hide their faces.’
It was a remarkable comparison to make, and as
The Times
noted: ‘This is a pretty hefty burden to place on Boyle’s shoulders.’ An understatement if ever there was one. To compare her impact with that of Christ’s, where was it all going to end?
As far-fetched as some thought the comparison was, at least it was an observation delivered with love and goodwill as its central theme. The same could not be said of another reaction to one fleeting fragment of that historic appearance.
While Susan had been talking to the judges prior to her audition song, the cameras had flitted across the faces of those in the audience. Slouched low in one of the theatre’s seats was a pretty young girl who, like so many around her, looked both surprised and dismissive, her slight rolling of the eyes showed that she was both amused and disbelieving.
Yet her innocent reaction was to make her the subject of a hate campaign that was to be labelled ‘internet fascism’. A clip of Susan’s
BGT
audition had provoked a host of abusive and threatening posts against the teenager, nicknamed the ‘1:24 girl’ because she appears just under one and a half minutes into the clip.
One read: ‘Talk about never judging a book by its
cover. [By the way], anybody else feel like punching the chick at 1:24 in the face?’
‘Not enough has been said over her: the girl at 1:24,’ adds another ‘Can we not find her and name and shame her, please? She leaves a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.’ Friends of the teenager even said the show’s producers singled her out in the editing of Susan’s performance and that the young woman was ‘extremely upset’ by the campaign, adding ‘everyone in the venue was in exactly the same boat, booing Susan and heckling her before she had even begun to sing.’
Susan sprang to her defence. ‘Leave the poor girl alone,’ she said. ‘She had the same reaction as the judges and everyone else in the theatre; she does not deserve this treatment.’
The programme makers were concerned enough about the development to say: ‘She shouldn’t be a target and we would ask her to get in contact if she has any concerns.’
Eventually the girl was identified as Jennifer Byrne, 18, now a great fan of Susan’s, who felt it unfair that she had her face shown on air. Hairdresser Jennifer said, ‘It was a split-second reaction that changed my life. All I did was roll my eyes and I’m targeted by a hate campaign for months. I just can’t believe how I have been targeted by total strangers around the world who don’t even know what kind of person I am. I really didn’t mean any harm. I think Susan’s a fantastic singer who deserves all of her success.
‘I’ve been pretty shocked by it all and I really just want it all to stop now. They could have filmed 100 people around me with exactly the same expressions.’
Twisted strangers had made contact with Jennifer’s friends with messages like: ‘That wee bitch will burn in hell’ and ‘Anyone smacked the bitch yet?’
‘Going to the
BGT
auditions was supposed to be a great night out with pals,’ Jennifer went on to say. ‘I can’t believe how it all turned out. What really bothers me is how the production company only kept in that split-second shot of me when there were hundreds of other people doing exactly the same thing.’ Jennifer, who went with eight friends to the audition, added, ‘We were quite near the front so we had a really good view. I knew that the camera was close by us, but as the night went on we forgot it was there because we were just having such a good time.
‘When Susan came on, everyone in the audience thought she looked a bit odd, wiggling her hips to the judges. Everybody thought her audition was going to be a disaster – there had been some terrible ones earlier. All I did was roll my eyes the same as everyone else in the audience, including Simon Cowell. She just looked a bit out of place. Some people near us were shouting to her before she had even started singing. But when she sang, we all just jumped to our feet. And as soon as I got home I told my mum about this amazing singer and how she could probably win the competition. What really annoys
me is that the producers didn’t show me when I was up clapping and cheering Susan. It looks as though I didn’t appreciate her, which is not true.’
Three months later, the programme was transmitted. ‘We were all sitting watching it and then suddenly my face popped up. I couldn’t believe it. All my pals started texting saying they’d seen me. But even then I said to my mum, “Why did they show me looking like that?” Within a few days people started messaging me on the internet with some really nasty stuff. They were saying things like “Let’s get the bitch” and “We’ll hunt her down and slap her”. It was really upsetting to see such horrible things being said about you. Over the weeks and months it got worse and worse. One day I was on the train and somebody recognised me and started to try to film me on their mobile phone. It was pretty spooky. At one point my pal put a jumper over my head just to stop them.’
Poor Jennifer was even booed by the audience when the clip appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in America. A Facebook page was set up by supporters of Susan in which Jennifer was criticised and the attacks continued on online forums.
Jennifer reckoned she was getting a much harder time of it than Sharon Osbourne, who had come out with a personal and vulgar attack on Susan. ‘It’s pretty shocking when you see the really horrible stuff she said and she escaped with a quick apology.’ She added, ‘It
really meant a lot when Susan defended me. At least she knows I’m a big fan,’ she told the
Sunday Mail
newspaper in Scotland.
One thing the campaign hadn’t done was cause Jennifer to develop an aversion to
Britain’s Got Talent
. ‘I love all these kinds of shows. I’ve applied for tickets for the auditions in Glasgow again next year – but I won’t be sitting anywhere near any cameras.’
Young Jennifer wasn’t the only one caught in the wake of Susan’s fame: an MP was forced into an embarrassing public apology after jokingly linking Susan’s success with swine flu. Siôn Simon, Minister for Further Education in the then Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills made the ‘joke’ on Twitter, shortly before Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced details of British cases.
‘I’m not saying Susan Boyle caused swine flu,’ he said. ‘I’m just saying that nobody had swine flu, she sang on TV, people got swine flu.’ But he later apologised on Twitter, saying, ‘Earlier I repeated a joke that was in poor taste, which I now regret. I apologise wholeheartedly for any distress or embarrassment caused.’
The public had taken to Susan in their millions, but that couldn’t prevent some unkind people deriding her and her looks. On Graham Norton’s chat show he and
Little Britain
star Matt Lucas both made unkind remarks about her and the ensuing publicity she had received.
Lucas joked about whether Susan was in a Top 100 sexiest women list yet, and then he said, ‘She is definitely the best singer I have seen that looks like Bernard Manning.’ Norton then added, ‘For a hairy woman with thick ankles she is amazing. But as a singer she is just OK.’
Such was the attention Susan was attracting that she had to change her telephone number. A friend said, ‘The past month has been manic and her house phone has been red hot. Because Susan has become an international star, she was getting calls in the middle of the night. Now she has a number which only relatives, close friends and producers have. It’s fair to say Susan is a bit of a technophobe – she’s never even used the internet. The show’s producers have told her to use a mobile, but she doesn’t have a clue how to, so never has it on.’
If Susan was aware of the cheap jibes of some comedians, she would have been comforted by words of praise from a fellow female Scottish singer. Aberdeen-born Annie Lennox was tall, angular and strikingly beautiful. She had also studied at The Royal Academy of Music before achieving fame through her vocals, first with the Eurythmics and then as a solo artist. She had sold millions of records and – with her sometimes androgynous appearance – had become a style icon. So, she knew what she was talking about when she said, ‘This phenomenon with Susan Boyle. She’s not a goddess to look at, God bless her. But everyone was deriding her and that’s very cruel. And then she sang and they all give
her a standing ovation. It’s almost like the Romans where they put the thumbs up and you’re the best and you can survive or they put the thumbs down and you’re dead in the water. If people like your music you can’t guarantee they’re going to love you, they’re going to hate you, you just never know. So you go along with the journey. You learn to be philosophical.’
Paul Potts, whose own story of success with
BGT
in spite of initial reservations about his appearance, echoed her thoughts. ‘I think she’s great. She’s done really well and she’s coped with the media attention incredibly. I don’t know how I would have reacted to suddenly finding photographers outside my doorstep.’
It wasn’t just singers who were on her side, either. The Golden Couple of the day were Manchester United and England star Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen. So words of support from Mrs Rooney were akin to being granted a Royal Warrant.
‘Susan Boyle is great and I had goosebumps when she sang. I was so pleased that she did well. The crowd didn’t seem that supportive when she first came out on stage, but now the world loves her.
‘Apparently over 100 million people have watched Susan’s performance on YouTube, which is just amazing. Good on her, she deserves it. She’s had so much attention and publicity, and I hope something comes of all this and that it lasts. I bet she’d be great in a musical – she reminded me of a drama teacher!
‘I have to say that I do find it a little sad that people are saying Susan has to have a total makeover. I think it’s up to her if she wants to have one or not. Every woman loves to have her style updated, but an extreme makeover shouldn’t be pushed on her because she’s been very successful with the way she looks now. I mean, she’s just had her hair restyled and it looks good, but she shouldn’t go too far as I think she’s fab as she is. But every woman loves a bit of a makeover and I hope she enjoys getting pampered.’
With her new-found fame, many major businesses and companies were eager to be associated with her, a fact noted by the prestigious
Marketing Magazine
: ‘A host of brands are vying to sign up
Britain’s Got Talent
contestant Susan Boyle to promote their products.
‘According to a spokeswoman for production company Talkback Thames “all imaginable brands” from sectors including hair-care, mobile, food, FMCG (fast moving consumer goods such as food and drink, perfumes and washing powders) and utilities have sounded out the talent show’s producers. “We’ve been inundated with calls,” she said.’
Despite the interest, however, Boyle, who has taken the show by storm, will not be able to sign any contracts until after the series ends later this month.’
That didn’t stop one cheeky bar owner from promoting a cocktail he had named after her which was ‘designed to be a little bit cheeky, just like she is… When
you take a sip, it’ll leave a little moustache.’ The £9 cocktail contained vodka, wild strawberry and sour rhubarb liqueurs, blossom water, cranberry juice and mixed berries. When topped with a creamy Frangelico layer and sprinkled with chocolate shavings it’s true that it would inevitably leave a slight ‘moustache’ on the upper lip of anyone who drank it!
Susan, not a drinker anyway, was too busy to try it; in early May she was showing the Oprah Winfrey film crew around her house so that they could prepare for her link with the talk-show queen during her ‘World’s Got Talent’ series. The crew only stopped filming at one stage in the afternoon when they had to leave the house as Susan was ‘having a nap’. Susan, who had been sporting a pink fluffy scarf, a turquoise blouse and even a touch of red lipstick, posed for a scene in which she welcomed them to her house and offered them tea and Scottish cakes.
Reference has already been made to that appearance – with Oprah and Simon Cowell assessing acts from around the world – but he summed up the show’s appeal, to acts and public alike, when he said, ‘It gives the underdog a shot, and I think it’s brilliant. The fact that we’re allowing the public to make the decisions most of the time is a really good thing. The great thing about it is when you start seeing it in places like China and Afghanistan. It’s democracy. We’ve kinda given democracy back to the world.’
He was obviously, and understandably, proud of the programme. But there were others who were less kind with many critics in the UK pointing out the comparison between show’s success and the fate of
The South Bank Show
, the television ‘highbrow’ look at the arts, and seen in 60 countries worldwide, whose forthcoming demise had just been announced. It attracted a million viewers compared to
BGT
’s ten million-plus. But even Melvyn Bragg, the programme’s elegantly coiffured presenter would not attack
Britain’s Got Talent
or Susan – he too had fallen under her spell.
Having been told that his programme, which had been on air since 1978, was to end, Bragg, a Labour Life Peer, said, ‘I later hear from an insider that the new budget would give an entire season of
The South Bank Show
about half as much money as is spent on one episode of
Britain’s Got Talent
. Of course,
The South Bank Show
doesn’t have anything like the pull of
Britain’s Got Talent
, which is seen by more than 10 million viewers. An average
South Bank Show
gets one-tenth that audience. They say we only get a million. Well, for Christ’s sake. Sky television would die for a million. A million people would fill up the Royal Opera House for two years! And if we were played at a regular time, regularly, and promoted, things might go up a bit. But never mind. A million is okay.’