GN Commentary: April 24, 2009 - The Susan Boyle Surprise

Are there deeper things in life we're missing? If so, perhaps we have the new musical sensation, Susan Boyle, to thank not just for singing so beautifully, but also for bringing this to our attention.

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Video Transcript

It probably brought tears to your eyes, as it did to mine. Who would have imagined? The unemployed, 47-year-old church volunteer from West Lothian in Scotland who had the audacity to go on "Britain's Got Talent" and declare "I want to be like Elaine Page."

She stood there, in front of a cynical British audience, and the ever-skeptical British judges, and drove the point home. What a voice! As she began to sing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables, a star was born. Simon Cowell's eyebrows rose high. A completely unanticipated beautiful voice emanated from this unlikely-looking sensation. She surely must have one of the most amazing female voices we've ever heard.

If you haven't yet heard of Susan Boyle, you should. Her YouTube recording has generated tens of millions of viewings, and the numbers are still growing.

The irony, of course, is not just her voice. It was, well—her image. People were cynical because she just didn't look the part. She certainly wasn't glamorous, nor could she be called beautiful. In some ways, she was quite the antithesis of our image-obsessed twenty-first century search criteria, with her frizzy hair and old-fashioned dress. She even confessed she had never been kissed, and told the audience she lives alone with a cat called Pebbles.

But as she began to sing, one of the co-hosts turned to the camera and asked, "You didn't expect that, did you?" No, we didn't, and nor did Britain's talent scouts. 

Is there a lesson here for our image-obsessed culture? If so, what is it? Is it the old saying, that you can't judge a book by its cover? Or maybe the terse warning of Jesus Christ that we should not judge according to appearances, but that we should judge righteous judgment? (John 7:24)

Does the discovery of this very talented singer tell us even more? That we run the risk of missing the greatest music, the finest God-given talents of the human spirit, and perhaps even the deeper meaning of life itself, because of our superficiality? Are there deeper things in life we're missing? If so, perhaps we have the new musical sensation, Susan Boyle, to thank not just for singing so beautifully, but also for bringing this to our attention.

For GN Magazine, I'm Ralph Levy.