After her star-making appearance on Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle secured a place in all
of our hearts. But her path to fame wasn't an easy one. If you're curious about her early
life and how she got to where she is today, keep watching to witness her stunning transformation.
Boyle was born in 1961 in Blackburn, Scotland to Patrick and Bridget Boyle,
a miner and a typist, respectively. She was the youngest of nine siblings,
and her mother was 47 when she gave birth to her.
Due to a difficult birth, Boyle experienced a lack of oxygen as an infant,
resulting in a condition that at the time was thought to be mild brain damage. As a result,
she grew up with some learning challenges and became the target of bullying in school. Despite
her childhood hardships, she's characterized herself as a "cheeky little girl" who fought
very hard to carve out a space of her own among her siblings. In 2009, she told The Sunday Times,
"You had to fight your corner in a family the size of ours."
With her mother's unwavering support, Boyle found her way to singing just before her teenage years.
She discovered her iconic talent by participating in school productions
and performing with her church choir. As she told The Sunday Times,
"The teachers said I had a talent but I was too young to know."
But for much of Boyle's early life, singing was merely an activity that she did for pleasure,
not a skill that could lead to a career.
In 1995, Boyle attempted to pave her way as a professional singer by auditioning for
My Kind of People, a British talent show. Hosted by English presenter Michael Barrymore,
the show could've very easily been Boyle's ticket to fame.
Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way. Boyle later explained that she was "too
nervous" to make it through the process. As she explained to The Sunday Times,
"I was shaking so much I could hardly sing."
That's certainly a stark contrast to the bold,
confidently quirky singer who eventually graced the Britain's Got Talent stage. She also noted,
"I got through it but I never made it onto television. I just wasn't ready."
Nevertheless, the audition experience motivated Boyle to focus on improving her talent,
prompting her to sign up for singing lessons with vocal coach Fred O'Neil.
Sometimes shifting priorities lead people to put some of their dreams on hold.
That's what happened with Susan Boyle when she started caring for her mother
Bridget in her older age. Despite her large family and many siblings,
Boyle became her mother's primary caretaker, as her father had passed away years before.
But her responsibilities to her mom didn't entirely stop her from performing.
Boyle sang in church choirs and performed karaoke, and she and her mother even made it a habit of
watching Britain's Got Talent together, with Bridget always encouraging her daughter to
audition. But when Bridget died at the age of 91 in 2007, her daughter's emotions took over,
and she lost all interest in singing. As she confessed to The Sunday Times,
"I was left really upset because of the bereavement I had and decided to give up singing."
It would be two years before she took to the stage again.
When Susan Boyle confidently walked out onto the stage during Season 3 of Britain's Got
Talent in a modest dress and unkempt hair, the audience giggled in secondhand embarrassment.
"How old are you, Susan?"
"I am 47. And that's just one side of me."
Nobody was prepared for what was to come next, as Boyle belted out a powerful rendition of "I
Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables, taking the audience and the world by storm. Her audition
video was soon uploaded to YouTube, where it went viral and reached millions of viewers.
As Boyle told The Sunday Times shortly after her audition,
"I saw people laughing and I knew they were laughing at me. But I thought, well,
they'll soon shut up when they hear me sing. And they did."
Boyle received a standing ovation and three yeses from the judges, and she quickly moved onto the
next round of the competition. She continued to deliver jaw-dropping performances on the show,
and she appeared to be the crowd favorite to take home the top prize in the finale.
But in a shocking upset, she lost to street dance troupe Diversity, leaving her as the runner-up.
Boyle's viral success reached wide audiences in both the United Kingdom and the United States,
and her debut album, I Dreamed a Dream, exceeded sales expectations when it was released in 2009.
It sold 701,000 copies during its first week in the United States alone, making for the
most successful first week sales for a debut album since Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle in 1993.
Not only did Boyle blow everyone away with her sales numbers, she also swiped a Grammy nomination
for Best Pop Vocal Album. Her fellow nominees in the category were Lady Gaga, John Mayer,
Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber. After her nomination was announced,
Boyle was thrilled by the news, as she said,
"Up against wonderful artists like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, I don't expect to win for a moment.
But how fantastic just to be recognized like this with a nomination on my first album."
The prize ultimately went to Lady Gaga for The Fame Monster,
but Boyle's momentum wasn't slowing down.
Soon after her success on Britain's Got Talent, Boyle added another accomplishment to her growing
resume, as she was named the seventh most influential person in the world by a Time
Magazine poll in 2010. She ended up 70 places ahead of Britain's Got Talent judge Simon Cowell,
and she even surpassed U.S. President Barack Obama by 14 spots.
When asked by The Press and Journal about her success in 2017, Boyle explained that even in
the face of fame, she stayed grounded and humbled thanks to her close-knit team. As she put it,
"The critics thought I was going to be a flash in the pan, but with a great team around me and
a brilliant record label, I am still going. Even I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe it."
Throughout her adult life, Boyle was under the impression that some of her behavior was due
to the supposed brain damage that she'd sustained during her birth. But all that
changed when she was diagnosed with Asperger's. She was relieved to finally have a satisfying
explanation for her emotional outbursts and acute anxiety. As she told The Scotsman in 2013,
"It was the wrong diagnosis when I was a kid.
I was told I had brain damage. I always knew it was an unfair label. Now I have a
clearer understanding of what's wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself."
Boyle's public commentary about her condition brought a renewed attention to Asperger's in
the United Kingdom. Robert MacBean, campaigns and policy officer for the National Autistic
Society Scotland, believes that her revelation changed the conversation. As he told The Scotsman,
"By revealing her diagnosis, Susan Boyle is helping to highlight that
there are older people with autism in all our communities who need our support and care."
Boyle maintained that her diagnosis didn't change her, but rather,
it gave her a better understanding of herself.
Much of the United Kingdom met Susan Boyle on its TV and computer screens, and then her
fans had the chance to see her perform live during the Britain's Got Talent tour in 2009.
But it took a few more years before she went on tour as the headlining act.
That finally happened in 2013, and based on the pent-up demand, maybe she should've
hit the road even sooner. The tour was a seven-show run across the United Kingdom,
and most venues almost sold out based on just the pre-sales alone.
To get specific, within hours, about 98 percent of tickets had been snatched up
by eager concertgoers. Tour organizers then reported that "just a handful" of tickets
were available for Boyle's shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh and warned that the remaining
tickets would be sold in just a few hours. A spokeswoman for Boyle told The Scotsman,
"This tour is her way of thanking the Scottish public for their support
since Britain's Got Talent. They have been unbelievable."
By 2015, Susan Boyle had a gleaming list of achievements to her name:
a successful debut album, two Grammy nominations, and millions of album sales, just to name a few.
And soon enough, she added one more accomplishment to that list, as she was
granted an honorary doctorate for distinction in music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
The performing arts school awarded Boyle with this honor in a formal ceremony in June 2015.
Fellow recipients of honorary degrees from the school have included singer Annie Lennox and
actress Tilda Swinton. Shortly after the ceremony, Boyle told the press,
"I'm absolutely on top of the world, very humbled, very privileged."
Boyle had already become a familiar face among the Royal Conservatoire's halls prior to receiving the
doctorate, as she had worked with Andrew Panton, the school's artistic director of musical theater.
"I've known Andrew Panton for a number of years now.
I find him a pleasure to work with. Very talented."
After her Britain's Got Talent days, Boyle continued to perform and released several
studio albums, reaching new heights as a global sensation. In 2019, she experienced a bit of
redemption with her talent show ambitions, as she returned to the stage once again on
America's Got Talent: The Champions. Even though she was up against some formidable competition,
she came to The Champions with a newfound sense of confidence. She told Forbes,
"In 2009, I had everything to prove, I really wanted to have a singing career,
so the pressure I put on myself to try and realize that dream was immense. This time round,
I've had a wonderful career, traveled the world performing and so this I did for fun
and as a personal challenge. It's healthy to challenge yourself and I do love a competition."
Boyle walked onto The Champions stage to a standing ovation. She had the audience and
the four judges on their feet before she even started performing. Her rendition of "Wild
Horses" earned her the Golden Buzzer from judge Mel B, which sent her straight to the finals.
"It's raining confetti! Hallelujah!"
Despite her charm and immaculate voice, though, she didn't quite pull off the victory,
as she lost to magician Shin Lim. Shortly after her time on the show, she told People Magazine,
"I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, but also deep down I didn’t think I would win.
Secretly you hold out hope that you just might because that’s what drives you to do your best
in a competition. I’ve never really considered myself a champion, I’m just me, Susan Boyle."
Despite not being the last act standing, Boyle remained confident. As she told Forbes,
"Champions is only just the start of an exciting year ahead [...] I’ll be doing more travel,
more performances and there’s also talks of a U.S. tour later this year….
so watch this space. It’s all very exciting and I can’t wait. Bring it on!"
"Do you consider yourself a champion?"
"Be a champion for those who maybe don't have the confidence to do things."
Ever since going viral more than a decade ago, Boyle has continued to
capture the hearts of Scotland, England, the United States, and the rest of the world.
During the March leg of her 2020 tour, she paid homage to the start of her career by returning
to the theater that started it all: the SEC Armadillo in Glasgow. That's where she blew
everyone away with her Britain's Got Talent audition in 2009, and it was
a venue that she was really looking forward to performing at again. As she told The Scotsman,
"This is where it all began, deja vu, full circle if you like [...] I remember being
backstage and sashaying on with an awful frock on,
awful haircut and I don't know how the heck I got through. Well, I made a mark somewhere."
She certainly did make a mark, and she continues to do so every day!
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