Susan Boyle by Alice Montgomery Read Free Book Online Page B

authenticity, he said, that made her such a success.
    Someone else touched by Susan’s gold dust was Amanda Holden. She was, of course, on the audition clip that had been beamed all over the world, and in the wake of that, Amanda had been interviewed innumerable times about Susan, not least on American television. It seemed the Americans liked what they saw, and why not? Simon and Piers were stars in the States, so why not Amanda?
    She had certainly been keen on the idea in the past, saying, ‘I want that for myself. I bloody well would like to go over there.’ And now it seemed she was going to get the chance. CBS offered her a job co-anchoring The Early Show after Britain’s Got Talent finished on 30 May - and all because of the worldwide interested generated by Susan. It all served to enhance the fairytale quality of the story - not only had Susan’s life changed, everyone around her was experiencing good fortune too.
    Amanda continued to emphasize that Susan shouldn’t change, however. ‘Everyone was against Susan when she walked on that stage,’ she told the American audience. ‘We all were. We were all too cynical. It was a complete privilege to listen to Susan, but she needs to stay exactly as she is, because that’s the reason we love her. A makeover can perhaps come later, when she’s signed the album deal and conquered America.’ In actual fact, the makeover had already begun.
    Susan’s changing appearance was, in reality, a physical manifestation of her change in status. No one had taken her seriously before, but they were now, and as her popularity grew, so she came closer to the commonly held ideal of what makes a woman attractive. However much Amanda and co. might have wanted Susan to stay the same, the fact remained that Susan wanted to change.
    She had never been allowed to feel that she could compete with the rest of the world on any basis, be it as a sexually attractive woman or a person who could have an interesting life in her own right. Until now she had been daughter, sister, aunt, carer, and not a great deal more. Cinderella, to whom she was increasingly compared, rose from the ashes to don her finery, and metaphorically, Susan was doing exactly the same.
    Meanwhile Susan’s makeover was gradually taking place. Her eyebrows were noticeably slimmer, her hair had been trimmed and now it went from grey to auburn. Susan’s wardrobe underwent a similar metamorphosis when she was pictured wearing smart trousers and a light brown jacket, an outfit that was a world away from her appearance a week earlier.
     
    All this time, it was increasingly apparent that in private her voice had been stunning family and friends for years.
    The Mirror unearthed an old family video of Susan singing ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar when she was just twenty-five. ‘It was a very emotional night,’ her brother Gerry told the paper. ‘It goes quiet when Susan sings; it always does. She always has that effect. The week before she went on Britain’s Got Talent she sang “Ave Maria” at my mother-in-law’s funeral and stunned the church.’
    Extraordinary aspects of Susan’s story just kept emerging. It turned out the Boyle family, or at least some elements of it, were moving in rather higher echelons than had been previously suspected, as none other than Sir David Frost was a friend. He had met Gerry, and another brother John, twenty years previously, when the brothers suggested setting up a property firm based on Sir David’s television show Through The Keyhole .
    ‘We’re still friends with him and he gets in touch regularly,’ said John, who also lives in Blackburn. ‘He will definitely be in touch when he realizes what Susan is doing. That’s just the kind of guy he is.’ Indeed, David had been one of the first to call the family after their mother Bridget died two years earlier.
    Susan’s appearance continued to change subtly, with every new brush of