This was what made my day – Susan Boye auditioning for a place in Britain’s Got Talent.
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What we’re seeing here is 48-year-old Susan Boyle, performing I Dreamed a Dream by Les Miserables. The 48-year-old charity worker from West Lothian who claimed that she has never had a boyfriend and never been kissed, will find herself swamped with thousands of fans around the globe. In less than a week after the video of her performing on Britain’s Got Talent, the YouTube video has managed to hit 9 million and counting. Even actress Demi Moore (@mrskutcher) was moved by her performance, after being sent a link to the video by hubbie Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk). Simon Cowell is also planning to sign Miss Boyle into a contrast, and mould her into a star just like what he has helped Paul Potts rise to fame, with his first album hitting #1 in 15 countries.
What really made me love the video is how much confidence Susan had in herself – she said, while swinging her hips in a jolly manner, that “…and that’s just one side of me“. You can see as the video cut to the audience that this girl in blue blouse starting to roll her eyes (I loled at that) and when she expressed her wish to be as popular and as great as Elaine Paige, a row of old ladies discussed her line in disbelief. But soon after that, when the first line of the song came, she justified what she told to the audience and judges – she can sing, and more importantly, she sings it great. Her first line is blew me away, and the expresison on my face was somewhat a mix of that on Amanda’s and Simon’s face – disbelief and partly ashamed to think that Susan was being boisterous, and at the same thing, being completely captivated by the beauty and power of her voice.
Little kids at the playground
I travelled to Vivocity last Saturday to get some toffee from Marks and Spencers. I only love toffee candies from the store, and not from anywhere else. Thanks to Jaslyn, Mingyun and Cheryl for introducing me the lovely sweet from Marks and Spencers! Now I couldn’t live without it.
Back to the main topic, I’m finally using my camera again after weeks of disuse. Exams and intense cramming really do <sarcasm>magic</sarcasm> to one’s creativity – mine was literally snuffed out for the past month or so. I decided to grab my camera alongside with the new Konica Minolta 50mm f/1.7 lens I’ve purchased online (second hand) – I’ve never quite experimented with the lens before, so the trip to Vivocity will be a good practice.
I arrived at the open-air play area for kids on the second floor, and started shooting away. Each photo has it’s own little story behind it, and the thumbnails can be clicked to reveal a larger version of the photo. They’re also posted on my Flickr photostream, just in case you’re interested.
I'm tired, mom.
Amidst the screaming of the other kids, she looked at me. Her eyes were telling me that she’s tried, She’s cold. She wants to go home. She left the play area for her mom behind me, where mom lovingly wrapped her with a dry, warm towel.
It rained, shortly thereafter.
I feel good.
Nothing beats the spray of water on my chest. It feels so good!
Mmmm, waterrrrr.
You wanted to catch the columns of water, but to no avail. The water columns look like something you can grasp, but the moment you lay your hands on them, they shatter into tiny little sparkling droplets.
You gave up catching it. Instead, you bathed in them. Mmmm, waterrrrr.
Can I pee here?
No, you can’t. But in the end, you didn’t. In fact, I didn’t know if you’re intending to pee or just waiting for the water jet.
What’s with the big bloated tummy, by the way? I bet you had an awesome lunch :)
Hello!
Daddy loves to see you wonder around. Daddy hid behind columns, in a corridor nearby, giving you all the freedom to explore the tiny little world around you.
You weren’t afraid of strangers. Passerbys squatted down to smile at you, some waved at you, some made funny voice to get your attention. Before you wandered to far, daddy came out of no where, hugs you and drown you with kisses on the forehead.
You turned backwards, and saw me with my camera.
Hello!
It’s Friday again!
Even though I’m in the midst of my exams, I haven’t forget the weekly Friday upate. Fonty Friday is of course, one of the reason why, and alongside with that, it forces me to stay away from my notes a little while, take a deep breath and invest some time doing nothing academic related (like blogging). It refreshens me and of course, serves as an awesome stress reliever.
So for the weekly dose of font, we have Anivers, created by typeface designer Jos Buivenga.
My visitor count has taken a nose-dive since I started to update weekly due to my current busy schedule, but no worries, I will be back after my final paper on the 28th. Plus, I’m not very bothered by the visitor count. What really matters is I have quality readers like you :)
the world has gone berserk over Boyle. Nice voice eh?
Check out NoktahHitam’s latest blog post » The Homeless Man Called Razak
bro…i followed BGT since the first season…she’s got a great voice..the expression on simon’s face is priceless..haha
Check out life4hire’s latest blog post » Satellite TV Competition in America
Amazingly great! ^^
Same thing happen last year with BGT. Do you remember Paul Potts?
Check out Michelle’s latest blog post » Another Year Older & Wiser
Oh wow. Thank you so much, Teddy, for sharing that video. Her performance was absolutely breathtaking. I was in tears. She seemed like such a cute and wonderful lady, I was pretty disgusted that people were so critical of her before she even opened her mouth. Well, she showed them, right? Such a great performance. Chris and I enjoyed it! Thank you. That totally made my day as well. I just wanted to hug her! Was so cute that she was so surprised that she got all three Yes’s!
Those kids are soo cute. I especially loved the ones running around in their undies! haha I noticed the boy with his bloated tummy as well. Adorable. :D
I would so much love to come and hang out with you. You live in such an amazingly beautiful and unique place. We could walk around taking snapshots of everything/everyone. Would be much fun. Are you in? :P
Check out Latrina’s latest blog post » Me versus melancholy, and I win.
My pleasure. After the first time I watched it, I feel compelled to blog about it. I wanted to write about it earlier in the week but was too busy with exams, so I had to append it to the weekly Friday post instead, heh. Since then, I’ve been watching her performance over and over again – I just couldn’t get enough of her voice. I’m just too glad that I’ve found another old recording of hers – Cry Me a River, a recording she made in 1999 which she made 1000 copies and sold it for charity. I wonder why with that absolutely fantastic voice it took people so long to discover her talent. What a shame.
Those who ridiculed her before she sang should feel her performance as a good slap on the face – as if a train just ran over them, hah. Her performance is as good as a world-class opera singer. I can see where she’s going in the future! Even the Les Miserables cast were impressed with her performance. And I heard that Sony BMG has signed Susan up too. Wow.
And now, she’s showered with recognition, fanmails and requests for her signature at her home in West Lothian. Awesome!
Me too! Let’s see if we can work out a plan to meet or something, maybe somewhere midway of US and Asia, so that both of us don’t have to travel too far, haha! I’m in!
“Those who ridiculed her before she sang should feel her performance as a good slap on the face – as if a train just ran over them.” Oh, most definitely! I bet they felt so ashamed. I felt ashamed for them even.
I wasn’t able to listen to her cover for Cry Me A River because the audio kept messing up but I did find a fan site of hers and watched numerous videos and interviews. It’s astonishing how much fame she has gotten within only a few days. Very much deserved, indeed though! Too cool!
As for meeting half way somewhere – awesome idea! How about Europe somewhere? hehe
Btw, your website loads so slowly for me. I’m sure it’s because your connection is far far away from mine, a long way to travel! But I still visit it daily. :)
Check out Latrina’s latest blog post » Me versus melancholy, and I win.
The hype behind her voice sizzled out a little over the week, but I still have her song playing repeatedly over my playlist because her voice is just too angelic – I still can’t get enough of it.
Europe sounds like an expensive option :P hah! I will probably have to save up a lot before I can travel there. Any other alternative destinations that we can travel to?
Yea, my host isn’t the best one around but it is definitely the cheapest. I am thinking of migrating when my current plan expires, but I have no idea where to migrate to. May I know which host in your blog hosted on?
Susan Boyle is awesome. I got goosebumps when listening to her singing. And now she made it to everywhere even in Facebook – become a fan- stuff and local newspaper in my country. Grrreat!!! So it’s true, never judge a book by its cover =)
nice video and yea…she is GOOD hehehe ;) surprise surprise…sure its an eye opener for everyone…kills the skeptics in all of us…honest comments from the judges too ..except from simon as usual kekeke
and photos of innocent children are always a joy to look at…honest & unpretentious..have a good weekend ahead terry :)
Definitely. The video is a testament to why we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. It is indeed a very strong wakeup call to us that we should stop making judgement on others based on how they look like or how they present themselves to us. The real beauty is all in within, isn’t it?
Ah, thanks for the compliments on the photos of the kids! Indeed, they had an awesome time playing in the water. It rained quite soon after I’ve taken the shots, and some of them still continued playing. I hope they didn’t fall ill.
Haha, Simon was priceless–trying to claim after the fact that he didn’t totally judge her beforehand. I saw the way he acted when she said she was fourty-seven!!!
She’s really great though, isn’t she?
And those are great pictures you took–really managed to capture the sheer joy and happiness that comes with playing in the water. ^_^.
Check out Natalija’s latest blog post » Day 113 – Photo Studio
Yes! Hahaha Simon is just trying to be himself, lol. You could even hear Susan screaming “Oh Simon!” I bet his eyes nearly rolled out of his sockets when he was being very critical and sceptical of her talents. Well, he should hang his head down in shame now… so do the others who’ve doubted her.
Thanks for the compliments on the photos :)
@NoktahHitam: Definitely, she’s got one of the most fantastic voice ever. Check out her old recording of Cry Me a River and you’ll know why :)
@life4hire: I don’t generally follow Britain’s Got Talent, but I do watch the YouTube clips from time to time though. Yea, you can see how surprised the judges were when she started singing!
@voonqian: Indeed! Her voice is just down right fantastic!
@Michelle: Yeap, Paul Potts! Simon Cowell signed him on a contract, propelled his first album to #1 position in 15 different countries. I believe Susan Boyle can do as good as him (some people are already starting to call her Paula Potts, haha), or even better. She’s got the stuff!
@Oridusartic: Yea, she even has a fan page, not to mention a Wiki entry (although slated for deletion I guess the Wiki admins will have the conscience to keep it).
Susan Boyle shocked the whole world :P I honestly loved her from the start since she reminded me of my eccentric teacher, who, despite her looks or age, was truly amazing. Even Simon looked as if he fell in love with her when he started singing!
Your weekly blog updates are much better off than my own updates – I haven’t decided whether I’d do a weekly one or a very random, sporadic update. Anyhow, good luck with your exams!
Check out Aki’s latest blog post » Frustrated
Ooooh, I can believe how eccentric and interesting she’ll be if Susan Boyle is really a teacher. She’d make the whole class rock in either laughter or disbelief, judging from her quirky personality. Yea, there’s one moment when the camera cuts to Simon resting his chin on both hands, totally absorbed into her performance. I’ve never seen him like that too – a huge contrast of his reactions on American Idol.
Awww, don’t say that! Each blog is unique by its own and there’s no basis for comparison. I love reading random updates from you – there’s this element of surprise and lack of expectancy of when one will pop up.
Thanks for your best wishes! I bombed two papers yesterday, but got over it pretty quickly (knowing that no matter what I feel, I’ve cleared them for good).
My teacher was really eccentric. Most people fear her, but I loved her from the start :D And yeah, Simon resting himself was really shocking hehe. I read in the papers that people are offering to kiss Susan Boyle lol. It’s kinda sweet XD
Thank goodness :) Continue bombing the other papers with flying colours! :D
Check out Aki’s latest blog post » What’s in my handbag?
Haha, that’s because Susan said that she have not been kissed before… and in an interview she said it wasn’t an advertisement, haha! She must have gotten a lot of letters asking for a kiss, awwww!
I just bombed my 2 papers this week, felt pretty distressed after that but now I’ve got over it. Thanks for your best wishes though – I can save all the good luck for my final paper! Whee!
That’s one of my favourite songs and to hear it sung so powerfully when unexpected was something else! BTW, your site is looking good as always!
Check out Bush Mackel’s latest blog post » I Did a Bad Bad Thing – Paid to Blog
This probably applies to many – I’ve never heard this song until Susan Boyle sand it :) and because of this episode of BGT, the song surged up iTunes’ download chart by a huge number as well. The power of the masses doing the magic.
Thanks for the compliments! It has been a long time since I’ve went over to yours *weak smiles*, I won’t be able to leave a comment until my exams are over though. I’m kind of like on an Internet lockdown to make myself concentrate, hah.
Ha ha, no worries. I’m just NOW getting out and about to sites again after a self imposed lock down myself. (#):)
Check out Bush Mackel’s latest blog post » Wordpress Archive Dropdown
Glad to have you back and blogging again, Bush! Can’t wait to read more entries from you… and regarding the Paid for Blog thing you were talking about in a latest post, no worries. Google frequently crawls site so if you’ve removed the corporate content, your pagerank should be up in a jiffy. Plus, pageranks are not the most important thing afterall :)
I use Hostgator. I would recommend them to any one. I don’t think my site has been down for more than a few minutes within the past year, if that. Great speed too! If you think about switching to them, let me know. I could get you a good coupon. :D
Check out Latrina’s latest blog post » Time for a change.
Ooooh, HostGator! I checked out their plans and they sound pretty attractive, not to mention reasonably priced. I’m getting increasingly fed up with the inefficiency of my host and their frequent downtimes, so much so that I wouldn’t mind paying 1.5x more for a decent webhost.
I also considered other hosting companies too, BlueHost sounds like a good option too. What is your opinion on this? Thanks for the coupon offer anyway! I’m very grateful for your help.
I read up on a few reviews for BlueHost since I don’t know much about them. Their plans look great, especially for offering unlimited domains/space. I got some good reviews for 2008 although the ones I read that are more recent were 2-3 stars out of five. A lot of people complaining about their support. Although, you can’t ever trust reviews because most people write reviews to complain while only a few write them to praise.
BlueHost and Hostgator are priced just about the same, that is if you get the “Hatchling” package from Hostgator–which does not offer multiple domains. I have their “Baby” package that offers unlimited addon domains, which is how I am hosting Chris’s site. :P But if you only have one domain and don’t plan on getting others, stick with their Hatchling package.
Personally, I’d say go with Hostgator! hehe, but that’s just because I know they are great.
Check out Latrina’s latest blog post » Time for a change.
Oh, speaking of the nature of reviews, it’s quite true that people tend to write reviews when they have negative feelings for the host. People take things for granted so much so that they couldn’t be bothered to write a decent review until some problem pops up, hah.
I’d love the Hatching plan offered by HostGator but the problem is that I’m currently owning 2 domains (and probably more in the future), so I think I’ll have to stick to their Baby package if I’m intending to pick up their service.
Thanks for all the information! For years I’ve always been whining to switch host but couldn’t find one that somebody could vouch for. Now I have you, thanks for the recommendation and help! My current plan expires in two month’s time in July, so yeap I think I can get their plan in June or something, give me a month or so for the switching over.
p/s: If you would like to continue threading, you can reply to the second level comment (it will appear below this comment after posting) – I’ve disabled threading beyond 3 levels to keep things simple, heh.
I watched the Susan Boyle episode because my friend kind of force fed it to me… but it’s true, it was so amazing… it was nostalgic and beautiful. There’s just some out there that automatically assume, and sometimes, they get it right, and most times they get it wrong.
Check out Destiny’s latest blog post » Music: A-Sorrowful-Road
Owww, force-feeding! But I hope you loved the video after watching it! She really has an awesome voice, and I’m still not getting enough of it. She did a recording for a CD sold for charity in 1999, the song she sang was called Cry Me a River, you can go Google it and listen… and get blown away for the second time.
I’m glad that Susan has finally found a purpose in life – singning!
[...] Susan Boyle dreamed a dream… and that shot her to stardom! [...]