Does the name Paul Potts mean anything to you Bridget? He was found in the same way, doesnt seem to have a "tragi-glam" background and has become quite successful after this show. The thing is that people like opera and show singers because of their voices, not because of their back story. I hope she gets given a little make over and proves you wrong. All she needs (really) is a nice hair do and a new dress and she would actually look quite lovely. Bearing in mind her age and history, last thing I would want is for them to "tart her up" just to make her "popular".

This is the danger with any star these days though; Amy Winehouse is talented, tragi-glam material and she'll be forgotten pretty soon also I'm reckoning. I agree with Mel though, opera and show singers differ from pop stars in that the people who listen to them aren't fickle like pop fans so I think she'll have more staying power in that respect. Having said that, given that she's a devout Catholic and a no-fuss Scot she probably wont give a toss if she's only a one-album success, it'll still be enough to set her up for the rest of her life and it's likely it wont go to her head either.

I know your in New Zealand so I suppose we should appreciate just how far you are from the world but I will smile in a year when you have to eat your words!

give me a break - again, stereo type from bridget - if you are not young, pretty and sexy you will not last in this world - what about her TALENT? The door is opening, her foot is inside and just maybe this really will happen for her - SHAME on you bridget for raining on her parade - you are one of the women of the world who hates another women to succeed - just maybe, it is time for the media to wake up

In reference to the last comment.....yes Paul Potts,who was discovered by this very show is enjoying more than flash in the pan success. While the major hubub about Ms. Boyle will die down over the next few weeks,I believe that she will at the least make enough money from an album to set her up for the rest of her life.

The important point though is that this overnight success would not have happened if she "knew how to wear a frock". She would have been just another pretty face with a good voice. The appeal of Susan is that she made us confront our biases, made us feel bad about it, and now we want to make it up to her by loving her to death and giving her her dream life. She is sort of like all of our mothers who we have neglected and now realize how deserving they are. I think the hotness of her popularity will fade some inevitably, but I think she'll have a successful career and a comfortable life with the respect she's been lacking for so long. Think of Ethel Merman, Kate Smith, Ella Fitzgerald. Once they had captured the world, no one cared what they looked like.

I think Susan's first CD is "pre-sold" for at least 3 million copies right now. If the second sells half that, it will be a fabulous success. I also think that, while West End would be a stretch, concert and cabaret coul dbe extremely successful genre's. She has a very good voice which with a little coaching can be extremely good. After hearing the recording of "Cry Me a River", I think she knows exactly what she was talking about on Larry King regarding subplot of a song. A song isn't just words and notes, it's a story and she knows how to tell a story.

Actually, the type of tragedy that Susan has had in her life is what almost everyone who has heard her voice is already identifying with. And her "lack" (or freedom from!) glamour is also what is attracting fans. So both your cynicism and your reasoning seem totally off track. As every day goes by, I am less worried about Susan and how all this will affect her; she seems very grounded, and was already apparently able to be cheerful and happy with her life in general, though sad about her mother's death. Her reaction to her grief was to pick herself up and do something joyful that her mother would love. I think you are wrong about her staying power, but even if not I think your feelings of pity for "poor Susan" are misplaced.

Why do you think the world need more glam? I think you have missed the hole point, Miss Saunders.

As another commentors said: "Susan Boyle is the exact right singer with the exact right song for our exact right time. Our world is falling apart. Our dreams, if we want to continue in the new world that's forming, must be different. We can't keep the same dreams, in the same forms, doing the same things to make them come true, when the environment for their becoming is drastically changed. We can't. We have to let life kill the dreams we dreamed, and let new dreams surface."

And Miss Boyle has been brought to us just in the right time.

Actually, I'd be happy for the lady if she gets a real kiss and finds some real companionship. And before you give me the fem-slap for talking about kissing as if it's important: who brought it up, Doll? How about a story about the woman without the old-maid angle? Reckon you could manage that? Something like respect for the person?