Susan Boyle apparently recorded this some years back for a charity fundraising event.

clipped from entertainment.timesonline.co.uk

clipped from latimesblogs.latimes.com

On the British television show "Britain's Got Talent" Susan Boyle shocked the judges, the audience, and now thanks to the YouTube video featuring her performance, she has shocked the world.

In what must be a YouTube speed record this clip has been viewed (as of the writing of this) over 15.6 million times in less than a week!

What I love about this story and this woman is that she came out on stage and patiently endured the snickers and cynical laughter of the audience and the eye-rolling and sidelong glances of Simon Cowell but she needed only to open her mouth in song for mere seconds to dispel it all.

I cried through her performance, largely because of the beauty of her voice but also because of the triumph I felt for her. It was a moment of pure inspiration for me thinking of how this woman walked out of obscurity and in a moment won the hearts of everyone in that room and raised them to their feet for the homage shown her by their standing ovation.

My prayers are with Miss Boyle. I think she should win easily but a part of me feels like she's already transcended the venue of this television competition and winning it would almost be an unnecessary formality at this point. I am impatiently looking forward to more enrapturing melodies from the lips of Susan Boyle with an anticipation I haven't felt in years.

God bless you Susan!


Post by: Michael Rotolo -President of Rotolo Media www.michaelrotolo.com

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THE MEANING OF GOBSMACKED from Dictionary.com

Main Entry: gobsmacked
Part of Speech: adj
Definition: flabbergasted, astounded, shocked; also written gob-smacked
Etymology: from gob 'mouth' + smacked 'clapping hand over in surprise'

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English
Copyright © 2003-2009 Dictionary.com, LLC

It’s a fairly recent British slang term: the first recorded use is only in the eighties, though verbal use must surely go back further. The usual form is gobsmacked, though gobstruck is also found. It’s a combination of gob, mouth, and smacked. It means “utterly astonished, astounded”. It’s much stronger than just being surprised; it’s used for something that leaves you speechless, or otherwise stops you dead in your tracks. It suggests that something is as surprising as being suddenly hit in the face. It comes from northern dialect, most probably popularised through television programmes set in Liverpool, where it was common. It’s an obvious derivation of an existing term, since gob, originally from Scotland and the north of England, has been a dialect and slang term for the mouth for four hundred years (often in insulting phrases like “shut your gob!” to tell somebody to be quiet). It possibly goes back to the Scottish Gaelic word meaning a beak or a mouth, which has also bequeathed us the verb to gob, meaning to spit. Another form of the word is gab, from which we get gift of the gab. Says language expert Michael Quinion of World Wide Words .

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clipped from www.accesshollywood.com BLACKBURN, Scotland -- In a week, Susan Boyle has gone from karaoke and her local church choir to global fame and an invitation to the Oprah Winfrey show. The frumpy 47-year-old, who says she’s never been kissed, has gained celebrity fans and millions of admirers — including a fair number of men — since she wowed judges on the TV show “Britain’s Got Talent.” Her fame has been fueled by new technology, with a clip of her performance viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube. “Susan can’t help herself, she just sings whenever she can sing,” said Jackie Russell, the manager of the Happy Valley Hotel in Blackburn, Scotland, where Boyle occasionally sings karaoke. “We weren’t surprised by her talent, but we were surprised by the reaction around the world.” Until recently, few outside the village of Blackburn had heard of Boyle, who lives in a modest row house that she shared for years with her widowed mother, who died two years ago. In the past few days, she has appeared on TV around the world. Demi Moore is an avowed fan. “It has been surreal for me,” Boyle told The Associated Press on Thursday in Blackburn, 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Edinburgh. “I’m going to be on ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show,’ CBS and other American networks. “I didn’t realize this would be the reaction, I just went on stage and got on with it. “I did this for my late mother,” Boyle said. “I wanted to show her I could do something with my life.” Boyle has won over millions of viewers — just as she melted the heart of television’s harshest judge, Simon Cowell — with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” on an episode of “Britain’s Got Talent” that aired Saturday. The skillfully packaged segment, which has taken the Internet by storm, is a mini-opera of underdog triumph. The studio audience laughed and guffawed as Boyle took the stage with frizzy hair and wearing a dowdy dress. She told viewers she had “never been kissed — shame, but it’s not an advert!” She drew skeptical looks when she said she wanted to be a professional singer like Broadway star Elaine Page. Then she launched into “I Dreamed a Dream,” from the musical “Les Miserables.” Her soaring voice drew startled looks and then delighted smiles from judges Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. The audience leapt to its feet to applaud. Cowell called her singing “extraordinary.” Morgan said her “stunning” performance was “the biggest surprise I’ve had in three years of this show.” “I can hardly remember what happened on the night as I had my eyes closed most of the time,” Boyle said. “It really didn’t dawn on me what was happening.” Copyright 2009 by Associated Press. All rights reserved.