Susan Boyle has lost?

What just happened there?

Such has been the massive hype surrounding Susan Boyle, I decided to watch the final of Britain's Got Talent – and was amazed to see the world's most famous Scotswoman take second place to a tremendous hip-hop dance group called Diversity.

Somehow, I'm still stunned. The vote was public, so it couldn't have been "fixed" by judges anxious about her mental state. There must have been something in Ms B's performance (or lack of it) that turned viewers off. It didn't seem to be her singing– described as the best ever by judge Piers Morgan. But her appearance on stage was very strange. Muted, wooden, monosyllabic – she was hardly able to exchange even the most banal pleasantries with Ant and Dec before she sidled off. Was she mogadonned up? Or maybe on tranquilisers to get through the stress of the big event?

Either would be understandable as the press turned against the star of BGT in the week leading up to tonight's final. Watching Susan Boyle standing beside the seven or eight excited dancers of Diversity, the West Lothian lass had never looked more alone. And when their victory was finally announced, she released a huge, broad smile. The first genuine expression of pleasure on her face all night.

"They were better" was her immediate comment, followed by a final burst of the delightfully inappropriate facial contortions and skirt lifting.

Is she better off out of it? Maybe -- an internet clip of her debut performance is one of the most watched in history, with more than 100 million hits. And she's still likely to sing in West End Musicals and earn more than last year's winner – if that matters.

Now that the big artificial "fight" to be top dog is over, Susan Boyle may finally be left alone to do the messages and star in the occasional show. But one comment does bother me. A writer speculated today that BGT's creators might be unwise to let an emotionally unstable Boyle perform in front of the Queen. If she's capable of saying f—k off to the press, what obscenity might be uttered if Susan Boyle lost it in front of Her Madge.

Are we selecting winners on the basis of what would please the Queen? You'd like to think that wouldn't be a deciding factor for the public. But who knows. Did viewers pick up a collective second thought from the press, judges and even from the strangely muted Susan Boyle herself?

I don't think anyone knows why this unlikely star has struck such a powerful note across the world. Let's hope she now has time to understand the Susan Boyle phenomenon herself – before packing em in wherever she chooses to stand up and let rip.

Comments

[Neil Craig]

There is the fact that Diversity were frankly technically magnificent.

There is really quite a lot to be said for democracy & the wisdom of crowds. When it is achieved by large numbers of individuals seeing for themselves & making up their own minds it is almost always at least as good as the best "expert" opinion. It is only whenthe opinion is forcefed by the MSM having control over what they see that it fails which is part pf why the net is so liberating.