Authors: John McShane
S
HAHEEN
J
AFARGHOLI: 6/1
The second favourite with his own celebrity fans including Lily Allen, Sir Tom Jones and Beyoncé. The 12-year-old from Wales was seen as the most dangerous rival to Susan.
F
LAWLESS: 10/1
Their name says it all. Impeccable timing and choreography had made some viewers believe that this 10-strong dance group of north Londoners could win.
J
ULIAN
S
MITH: 12/1
The shy and unassuming self-taught Brummie saxophonist wowed the judges and the audience at his audition and semi-final.
T
WO
G
RAND: 33/1
Grandfather and granddaughter singers John O’Neil, 76, and Sallie Lax, 12, from Doncaster. The duo were so over-sweet in their performance that Simon Cowell likened them to ‘having seven sugars in your tea’.
D
IVERSITY: 10/1
This 10-strong band of brothers and friends were giving fellow dance troupe Flawless a run for their money.
A
IDAN
D
AVIS: 25/1
The 11-year-old hip-hop dancer, who Simon Cowell said
was ‘super, super, super talented’, body-popped his way to the final.
H
OLLIE
S
TEEL: 25/1
Simon Cowell had called the Lancashire ten-year-old ‘the bravest girl in the world’. Hollie burst into tears during her first attempt at singing ‘Edelweiss’ – after a hug from her mother she was allowed to take to the stage again when she delivered a note-perfect performance.
The excitement was mounting around the world, although Susan’s brother, John Boyle, appeared to have his feelings more under control than many.
He travelled almost 400 miles from his home in Blackburn to London for the
BGT
final on Saturday but decided not to attend the final, choosing to visit relatives instead.
‘It [the show] can go on for three hours and it can get boring after a while. I travelled to London, but I took the decision not to go to the studio. I went to my niece’s house in London to spend the night there,’ he revealed. ‘It was a deliberate decision on my part. Susan had plenty of people there backing her. I thought it was better to let the youngsters in the family go along instead.’
Whether or not he was present, Susan was apparently revving up for her chance. ‘I want nothing more than to stay and sing in the
Britain’s Got Talent
final. I’ve spent weeks rehearsing. It’s all I’ve been thinking
about. I’m not going to throw away my big chance now.’
Piers Morgan said she was in ‘very good spirits’ before the show, in spite of her outburst during the week. ‘They have a whole army of doctors, psychiatrists and experts available to any contestant at any time. They have all been taking great care of Susan. Susan Boyle is a very, very nice lady from Scotland who never thought she would have this chance and she is really looking forward to it.’
One of the other finalists, 73-year-old break-dancer Fred Bowers, viewed things slightly differently and was quoted as saying that she alienated fellow contestants. ‘We’ve realised she can be really aggressive. One minute she’s laughing and then she turns.’
Others, who had known her longer than Morgan or Bowers, had their own view on Susan and her temperament. Doug Malloy, a bass player who had accompanied her for 20 years, said, ‘Susan is a really nice person, but she is highly strung. If you were backing her and you hit a bum note, she would give you this look, one of those that can kill. She will not put up with people talking in the audience when she is singing. She would throw a tantrum right there on stage.’
Arthur Murray, 66, a guitarist and another of her long-time backing musicians, said, ‘There is no question about her ability as a singer. When I backed her, she used to do some stuff from the Carpenters, and she also loved musicals, like
Jesus Christ Superstar
. Everybody here
knows she is a great singer, but because of her problems, people just don’t seem to take her seriously. I always knew she had the talent to make it big, but I would have been worried about her temperament. With Susan, you would never know what to expect. When she was on form, she was unbeatable.’
So, would she be unbeatable that night of 30 May 2009, in front of what turned out to be the largest television audience in Britain since England played Portugal in the 2006 World Cup finals? What those millions at home didn’t know was what was going through her head. This is how she later put it:
‘With no pressure on top of me and suddenly all this pressure, I found it a bit suffocating. I was feeling very anxious during the final. It got so bad I was actually staring at the walls. I didn’t want to know anybody.’
What torment must have been going on inside her at that moment when Ant and Dec introduced her, the eighth act on stage? Yet there she was, standing alone on stage in her elegant blue, full-length dress literally in the spotlight, having to perform again. And she was magnificent.
The nerves of ‘Memory’ a week earlier were forgotten as she chose to reprise her audition song, ‘I Dreamed A Dream’. At times she seemed to be screwing up her face as though looking at some downward, distant object through a mist, as though the doubts of the previous week were sitting like demons on her shoulders. At other moments she shook her head defiantly to the side and
back again in some Judy Garland-esque gesture of defiance, a movement that brought a fleeting, almost paternal, smile from Simon Cowell.
Then, the ‘ordeal’ over, came the questions. Ant said, ‘Well done Susan, fantastic reaction, all the judges on their feet. How was that for you? You have had a lot of pressure on you this week, but you went out there and performed and it seemed like you really enjoyed that.’ Susan replied, ‘I would like to thank people and all the support they have given me, especially the people at home, the people in the audience. I’d like to thank everyone for all their support.’
Dec asked, ‘It has been a week with a lot of pressure for all the acts, none more so than you, but was that worth it, in front of everyone here?’ ‘Well worth it! Well worth everything,’ Susan replied.
‘That’s where you really feel at home isn’t it, on stage?’ enquired Ant. Susan nodded, saying, ‘I really feel at home on stage, of course I do, I am among friends, am I not?’
Then it was the judges’ turn to give their verdicts on the woman who had captured the imagination of the world.
Piers Morgan was first: ‘Wow, Susan, you’ve had a very difficult week. You have had an amazing seven weeks, but a very difficult week where you have been the centre of the world’s attention. There have been negative headlines, you have been boiling over, cracking up, going to quit the show, all this kind of thing. And quietly
all I kept thinking to myself was, all you have to do to answer all your critics, is walk down that stage to that microphone, sing the song that we all fell in love with, sing it better than you did last time.’
At that last remark, Susan rolled her eyes in pleasant surprise.
‘Susan,’ he continued, ‘I’m not supposed to favour anyone as a judge, I should be impartial, but you know what, forget it, that to me was the greatest performance I’ve seen in
Britain’s Got Talent
history. You should win this competition. I loved it.’
At this Susan put her hands to her face, turned around and tapped the back of her head.
Amanda Holden was next: ‘Susan, I have never heard such powerful, confident vocals. You absolutely, you sang it so well this evening and I just echo what Piers said really. You, out of everybody this week, have been under an enormous amount of pressure. But you did it girl. You did it for Scotland and you did it for Great Britain. And, can I just say, Simon had a tear in his eye and I’ve never seen that before.’
Finally came Simon Cowell’s judgement: ‘Susan, I don’t know who’s going to win this competition. But you know you have had a weird seven weeks and you had every right to walk away from this.
‘You could have had a lot of stuff coming your way in America and a lot of people said you shouldn’t even be in this competition, that you are not equipped to deal
with it. For what? For you to sit at home with your cat and say, “I’ve missed an opportunity.” I completely disagree with that.’
In the midst of his speech, Susan gently stroked one of her hands with the other.
‘And you know, win or lose, you have the guts to come back here tonight, face your critics and you beat them. And that’s the most important thing. Whatever happens Susan, I’ve got to know the real Susan Boyle, which is not the person I’ve seen portrayed in the media, who is still a very nice, shy person who just wants a break. You can walk away from this with your head held high. Susan. I absolutely adore you.’
The viewers’ votes had to be counted and that meant all ten acts stood on stage. Ant and Dec announced the top three: first to be revealed was Susan, followed by Diversity and then came Julian Smith. Everything seemed to be on course. The bookmakers were on the point of losing the £5 million riding on Susan. Third place belonged to Julian Smith, Ant and Dec announced, and after a few words from the soulful saxophonist he walked off stage.
The Geordie hosts stood in between Susan on one side, matronly and tense, and Diversity, all youth and energy, on the other.
Dec solemnly looked at the camera and intoned, ‘It has been an amazing final tonight. That’s it. One of you is going to win £100,000 and that place on this year’s
Royal Variety Performance. Good luck to both of you. The winner of
BGT
2009 is…’
And then he paused. The youngsters were moving around nervously; Susan seemed to be concentrating even harder than usual and was mouthing thoughts to herself.
A pause for dramatic effect is one thing, but the silence lasted 16 painful seconds before he said to the millions on the edge of their seats ‘…Diversity.’
The dancers went wild with delight. Susan smiled.
Dec turned to her and said, ‘With every competition there has to be a runner-up and this year what a fantastic competitor. Susan, how do you feel right now?’
‘The best people won,’ was her response, adding, ‘They are very entertaining, lads. I wish you all the best.’
Dec said to her, ‘That is very gracious. I want to say that on behalf of us all at
Britain’s Got Talent
, it has been amazing to meet you and we have all shared an amazing journey with you over the last seven weeks, you have been phenomenal. Let’s hear it for the runner-up, Susan Boyle!’
During this warm tribute from the hosts Susan reacted in typical fashion: she did a semi-curtsey, wiggled her hips and arms, did a small dance and finally raised her skirt above the knee to show the world her left thigh.
Diversity were still going crazy. They had every right to. Even Simon Cowell had been fulsome in his praise: ‘All bets are off. If I had to give marks on that this would be the only performance tonight that I would give a ten to. I
have got to say that when I’m looking at you standing there together, the fact you pulled it all together with not a step out of place, it was sheer and utter perfection.’
And Amanda Holden had told them: ‘You have practically rendered me speechless. Ashley [Banjo] your choreography is second to none. The rest of your team follows you to the letter. I think you have blown Flawless [the other street-dance finalists] out of the water. There is definitely room for you out there.’
The waiting world was soon being told the results of the
BGT
final via news bulletins, the internet and newspaper reports. The story wasn’t, of course, that Diversity had won. That wasn’t the story. The real story, the only one that most people cared about, the information they had been waiting for was the other side of the coin… Susan Boyle had lost!
Susan Boyle, the odds-on favourite; Susan Boyle, the woman the bookies reckoned had it in the bag; Susan Boyle, one of the most famous, instantly recognisable people on the planet, had not won. She had come second. The viewing public who had to decide who would be the winner had chosen someone else. It seemed barely believable. It was not credible.
Hadn’t she been on the
Oprah Winfrey
show for goodness sake? And
Larry King
, too? Even her cat Pebbles was a celebrity now. Her West Lothian home town had been visited by more film crews than most frontline battle zones. Stars had Tweeted about her, said
they would like to sing duets with her, marvelled at her talent. Surely there had been some mistake?
But there had been no mistake. It seems unkind to Diversity to be anything less than fulsome in praise of them, but many wondered how they could have got more votes than Susan? Perhaps the younger element in the audience had decided Diversity were the ones to choose. Perhaps, just perhaps, the ‘cult’ of SuBo had acted in a perverse way against Susan. Had the negative remarks and reports in some parts of the media about her treatment and her reaction to fame turned the voting public against her?
Whatever the reason, what had been done was done. She’d lost. Late that night there were some ‘after-match’ quotes from some of the key players in the drama. Dec admitted he was stunned at the result. ‘It’s a shock result, which was good for the show. People have been through mixed feelings about Susan. They loved her one minute and the next they went off her. But what people have to remember is we’ve only seen her sing live three times.’
Ant added, ‘That lady has had the most phenomenal seven weeks. It might be a blessing in disguise that she didn’t win.’
Simon Cowell’s view was, ‘Diversity were absolutely incredible. I’m gutted for Susan. She was there at the top all the way through. But she was incredibly gracious. Susan has come out of this very well. We’ve never had a runner-up like Susan before.
‘She won over a lot of fans tonight, not just with her voice, but with her graciousness. She’s got a massive future in front of her.’
The
Independent on Sunday
told its readers the next morning: ‘Cinderella will not be going to the ball. Susan Boyle, whose singing has transformed her in the past month from a slightly dotty-looking spinster into a worldwide inspiration, last night sensationally lost the final of the show that made her –
Britain’s Got Talent
.