Jokes at expense of the vulnerable aren't clever and they're not funny.

graysea

This is great to see again. Love it. Susan's terrific personality surely shines here. Love her.

graysea

Tommy USA knows what's the best. His great video tribute says it all. Now if we can get Susan to come out with a song like "Your the Best" that would be tremendous!

graysea

Another nice picture of Susan on The Amazing Susan Boyle today.

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

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Jokes at expense of the vulnerable aren't clever and they're not funny.

By Lindy McDowell

Thursday, 26 January 2012

The weather is bleak, recession is biting and the news headlines generally grim. Never mind folks - here's something that'll give you all a right laugh. Handicapped children. Vulnerable adults. Oh, what a hoot their disability is! Let's all gather round and have a good snigger ...

For poking fun at the disabled is currently just about the coolest thing in comedy.

And this is something a mite darker than the 2012 updating of jokes about the ma-in-law. It's taking "comedy" to a level that isn't about humour but which is more about cruel, abusive taunting. It's the schoolyard bully with a studio audience.

If it's not Frankie Boyle mocking Katie Price's disabled little boy, we've had Jimmy Carr sneering at Down's children and Ricky Gervais referring to Susan Boyle as a "mong" (surely one of the most offensive words ever used on television).

What Gervais actually said in a late night show on Channel 4 last year was that: "She (Boyle) would not be where she is today if it wasn't for the fact that she looked like such a f****** mong. When she first came on the telly, I went, 'Is that a mong?" You all did."

Hilarious, eh?

Gervais later claimed that the more modern sense of mong (short for Mongoloid) is the fairly inoffensive "dopey."

"I have used 'mong' but never to mean Down Syndrome and never would," he insisted. "The meaning of words change over time; 'gay' for example. The modern use of the word 'mong' means dopey or ignorant, it's in slang and urban dictionaries."

If we are to be fair to the man - and I try to be - we have to accept his word for it that he was not aiming for a shabby little laugh at the expense of the vulnerable.

And it should be said that when confronted by a distressed mother of two young Down's children who have that vile term of abuse regularly hurled at them in the streets, he did accept that he had been "naÃ¯ve".

Some small comfort there then for the many viewers who complained to Channel 4 at the time?

Well, actually no. For while a ruling from Ofcom on those complaints does accept that the comments could cause considerable offence they were held not to have breached guidelines since the show went out well post-watershed.

"The late scheduling of the programme, and its late night comedy context on Channel 4, meant that the majority of the audience was likely to expect the exploratory and subversive bent of the programme in general and of Ricky Gervais's humour in particular."

So offensive isn't quite as offensive after 10.30pm?

And exploratory and subversive? Maybe the school bully could use that pompous get-out clause next time he or she is hauled up before the head for hurling abuse at a disabled classmate.

I do have sympathy with regulatory bodies which are tied to strict interpretation of guidelines. And like most people I do get black humour. I understand that good comedy goes beyond cosy.

But kicking the kid with special needs?

I'm sorry but that just isn't a laugh. It's cheap, it's low, it's vile and more even than any of this, it's dangerous.

Not so long ago we read in horror about the case of the mother and daughter driven to their deaths by the torture and abuse of a local gang. Were the vicious thugs who did that just being "exploratory and subversive" too?

How can you excuse the sneering comedian and yet (rightly) castigate the yob in the street hurling similar verbal abuse?

A funny thing has happened to our humanity if we think mocking the vulnerable and defenceless is ever innocuous and harmless.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/lindy-mcdowell/jokes-at-expense-of-the-vulnerable-arent-clever-and-theyre-not-funny-16108460.html
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/lindy-mcdowell/jokes-at-expense-of-the-vulnerable-arent-clever-and-theyre-not-funny-16108460.html#ixzz1kZzFaqA2
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/lindy-mcdowell/jokes-at-expense-of-the-vulnerable-arent-clever-and-theyre-not-funny-16108460.html#ixzz1kZyvQSLS

graysea · 25th January 2012

A Message From Susan

25th January 2012

Hello,

I am so sorry that I have not written sooner and been delayed in wishing you all a very happy 2012. I’ve been quite busy over the past few weeks so let me begin where I left off, Christmas.

I spent christmas with my brother Gerry. I had a wonderful time and was very spoilt by everyone. My favourite gifts this year were a big teddy bear and a christmas jumper that’s a bit loud. Thank you so much to you all for the gifts and cards you sent to me. I was very touched by your kindness, sorry I can’t respond to each and everyone of you individually. I am trying!

Christmas isn’t Christmas without the Pantomime and Cinderella at the Kings Theatre, Edinburgh was great and extremely funny- Allan Stewart, Scotland’s most popular dame was hysterical and Grant Stott was great to. I always enjoy a good panto.

New Year’s Eve I spent with friends, we had a lovely meal together and waited for the bells at midnight. It was a great party and good to see in an exciting new year full of expectations with my oldest and dearest friends.

2012 has started off well. I’ve been choosing songs and ideas for the new album which I’m very excited about. So far I’ve come up with 86 songs that are personal favourites as well as looking at new material. I really enjoy the beginning of a new album, I like the creativity and team work as well as asking my fans opinion- your thoughts are very important to me.

Elaine C Smith and I have been discussing more of the musical, which starts in March and I’m really looking forward to the stage shows and being a part of a big ensemble cast.

At the beginning of January I was able to escape for a lovely few days to Ireland to visit friends. We had a really good time. I managed to visit the place, Lough Swilly, where John Newton was inspired to write Amazing Grace after being shipwrecked. This song was on my first album, I Dreamed A Dream and it was a really special day especially with my connection to that song. I had lunch at a lovely little country pub and what started with one person at the bar ended up with over 40 people joining us.

2012 is going to an exciting year and I will try to keep my updates as regular and interesting as possible, I don’t want to bore you all! I will definitely be writing once a fortnight but if there is any exciting news then I will write more and share it here first on the website.

http://www.susanboylemusic.com/gb/news/item/a_message_from_susan38/

graysea

A few of my postings were removed because they contained political advertisement that I did not know were on them. This is a fun and joyful site for Susan Boyle. All good and happy items allowed here. I am sorry the stories and posts come through with unknown ads. Thank you.

graysea

Today is the 3rd anniversary of Susan's audition at The Glasgow SECC

The day the dream began.

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http://s1228.photobucket.com/albums/ee458/1946Grethe/Susan%20Boyle%20from%201961%20till%20now/

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Moria and Julia from Amazing visiting with Susan in Susan's home.
Image and video hosting by TinyPic

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Superstar SuBo makes surprise Inishowen trip

Singing sensation Susan Boyle is photographed with young fan Amber O Doherty during a visit to the Beach House, Buncrana on Sunday. Ms. Boyle was enjoying lunch at the Beach House and was delighted to meet her fans and have her photograph taken with them.

Published on Tuesday 17 January 2012 08:59

Superstar singer Susan Boyle stunned people across Inishowen this weekend when she made a surprise visit to the peninsula.

The Britain’s Got Talent star visited a popular restaurant in the area before attending 12.30pm Mass at the Oratory in Buncrana on Sunday.

Inishowen couple Neil and Helen Doherty were enjoying dinner at the Lake of Shadows, Buncrana, on Saturday night when Neil noticed the celebrity guest.

“I was so excited to see her. I didn’t want to disturb her but I felt I just had to congratulate her on her success. I told her how much I admired her mastery of singing, her control, and thanked her for bringing so much enjoyment to people. She was absolutely lovely, so friendly and casual. It was wonderful to meet her.”

The singer also visited the Halfway House, Burnfoot, on Saturday, and enjoyed a sandwich and a glass of Guinness.

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SUSAN BOYLE IS STAR ATTRACTION AT SUNDAY MASS!

January 16, 2012

Singing sensation Susan Boyle surprised parishioners when she turned up at mass in Buncrana yesterday.

The much-loved Britain’s Got Talent star has been holidaying in Donegal for the past couple of days.

It is believed Ms Boyle has been sight-seeing around Inishowen and spent time in Carndonagh on Saturday.

One mass-goer at St Mary’s Oratory in Buncrana revealed how the singer had chatted with her young grand-daughter.

“She was really lovely. She shook hands with my grand-daughter at mass and said some lovely things about her. A lovely woman,” said the mass-goer.

She was also spotted having lunch in the Half-way House in Burnfoot where she even indulged in a glass of Guinness before chatting with customers.

Word of Susan's surprise appearance soon spread and the bar was packed within minutes!

Ms Boyle, who became an over-night superstar after appearing on the hit television talent show, spent many summers in Donegal.

Her parents are originally from the county and she has revealed in the past how she often spent many happy times here.

graysea

Subo reveals passion for the Black Stuff

Susan Boyle dropped into the pub for lunch

SUSAN Boyle has revealed a soft spot for Irish stout after popping into a pub on the Emerald Isle.

Wearing a fur coat, the Britain’s Got Talent star made a bee-line for the bar at the Halfway House in Burnfoot, Co Donegal – and ordered Guinness.

Customers were “shocked” when the singer turned up at the village pub on Sunday afternoon.

But the easy-going singer delighted them by posing for pictures and signing autographs before settling down to lunch.

After eating her sandwich and downing half a pint of Guinness, SuBo continued on a tour of the area.

Martina Long, the sister of the pub’s owner, told an Irish newspaper: “We went straight down to the bar when we got a call to say Susan Boyle had come in.

“She was lovely. She had a sandwich and a half pint of Guinness and chatted away to everyone. She signed autographs and stood for photos. She was very nice.

“Word got about pretty quickly and within minutes the crowd in the bar had doubled.”

The singer, who was also wearing a white cable-knit jumper and green scarf, toured the Inishowen peninsula with two other women and a man.

They later dropped into Lake of Shadows Hotel, 11 miles away in the town of Buncrana, for dinner.

Breedge Doherty, the hotel manager: “She was chatting away to people in the bar and was very nice to everyone.”

The weekend trip is not the first time SuBo has paid a surprise visit to Ireland.

Last August cabbie Michael Jennings picked the star up in Galway before taking her on a 60 mile trip to meet his mother.

SuBo had been shopping before a show but was only too happy to drive to Knock in Co Mayo to surprise Margaret.

Susan has visited Knock – home to the famous Marian Shrine – on organised pilgrimages before she became an international celebrity. Both her parents were from Donegal

http://www.deadlinenews.co.uk/2012/01/16/subo-reveals-passion-for-the-black-stuff/

graysea

Grethe posted another nice picture on The Amazing Susan Boyle. Susan in Buncrana, Ireland, where she attended Mass. The young admirer Jessica Kelly took the picture

graysea

Super furry SuBo wows Inishowen 15.01.12

by Linda McGrory

SINGING superstar Susan Boyle stunned locals in Inishowen when she dropped in for lunch on Saturday.
Staff and customers at the Halfway House, Burnfoot, were "shocked" when the singer walked through the door at 2pm. Wearing a warm long faux fur coat against the Donegal winter chill, she was accompanied by three friends - two women and a man.

"We went straight down to the bar when we got a call to say Susan Boyle had come in," said Martina Long, sister of the proprietor.
"She was lovely. She had a sandwich and a half pint of Guinness and chatted away to everyone. She signed autographs and stood for photos and she didn't mind at all.
She was very nice and down to earth.
"Word got about pretty quickly and within minutes the crowd in the bar had doubled," she laughed.
Dressed in a long white cable-knit jumper and green-gold scarf, Ms Boyle spent the day sight-seeing around the peninsula with her party - believed to include her PA. The four later dropped into a local seaside hotel for dinner.
"Susan Boyle and her friends came in around 7.30pm. Everyone recognised her straight away," said Breedge Doherty, manager of the Lake of Shadows Hotel in Buncrana.

Susan Boyle, pictured with Martin Gallagher, manager of the Halfway House, Burnfoot, Co Donegal, after the singing superstar dropped in for a pub lunch on Saturday.

"She was chatting away to people in the bar and shaking hands for about an hour. She was very nice to everyone."
The hotel then organised for the millionaire singer and friends to have their dinner in private. Meanwhile, worshippers were delighted to spot the singing sensation at 12.30pm Sunday Mass today in St Mary's Oratory, Buncrana.

Singing superstar, Susan Boyle, pictured with Arlene Coyle, left, Martina Long and young cousins Lindsay Long, 5, and Anna McDaid, 6 after she called in to the Halfway House, Burnfoot, Co Donegal, for a pub lunch.

http://www.inishowennews.com/012SusanBoyle018.htm

graysea

Not much news on Susan, but I did see this report on Amazon and posted by Grethe.

"Susan has been seen in the Halfway House (I think Restaurant or Pub / Bar) and then in the Lake of Shadows Hotel" Buncrana, Donegal.

Lake of Shadows Hotel, Buncrana, Donegal.

The Hotel takes its name from Lough Swilly, known as the Lake of Shadows, the scene of many significant moments in Irish history.

One of the best known hotels in Donegal and longest established hotels in Inishowen. Famous for its cosy atmosphere and fine foods the 'Lake' has proved a popular meeting place for friends and family over many years.

There is no better place to capture he spirit of Inishowen than in Buncrana. The hotel is only a few hundred yards from the sandy beaches of Lough Swilly and five minutes from the town centre. With the City of Derry airport only forty minutes away and Belfast International airport only an hour and a half, The Lake of Shadows Hotel is an ideal base for your business or leisure break.

The hotel was refurbished in 2008. The focus is on the traditional but with all the comforts of the modern, this can be seen in the food, the decor, and the friendly service.

Guests of the Lake of Shadows Hotel can enjoy free access (with voucher) to the Gateway Health & Fitness Club, which is adjacent to our sister hotel, The Inishowen Gateway Hotel, Buncrana, Donegal.

With Sky and Setanta Sports channels in the bar you can keep up to date with all the major sporting events.

Our Donegal Value Breaks and Hotel Specials are available all year round with the focus on good food and entertainment. The Saturday night special is very popular where you can enjoy a five course meal and free entry to a live country band followed by a disco for just €20.00 per person.

Stevieboy wrote: "She's back in the Home of her Ancestors where she has both Friends and Relatives.

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Susan's note and flowers that she sent as a tribute in memory of Kelly McGregor who died on January 4,2012 at the age of 37.

graysea

Susan Boyle joins cast of I Dreamed A Dream for performance at the Liverpool Empire

Jan 12 2012 by Mark Smith, Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News

SUSAN Boyle will be joining the cast of I Dreamed A Dream, the musical based on her life story, which is to visit the Liverpool Empire in April for one week only.

Her appearance in the musical will be the first opportunity for people to watch this global singing sensation perform in the UK on stage since the Britain’s Got Talent tour in 2009.

She said: “I am thrilled to be a part of the musical about my life story and very much looking forward to stepping on stage and performing with the cast.

“It is an honest portrayal of my life and has been a cathartic process to be involved in.”

Leading the cast and orchestra and taking on the lead role of Susan Boyle is Elaine C Smith, star of hit West End stage play Calendar Girls and best known as Mary Doll in Rab C Nesbitt on the BBC.

I Dreamed A Dream can be seen at the Liverpool Empire from April 17-21. Call 0844 871 3017 or visit www.liverpoolempire.org.uk

graysea

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 | Posted by Kirsty Topping

Subo hints at song for tragic X Factor singer

SUSAN Boyle could record a song in honour of X Factor hopeful Kerry McGregor.

Susan Boyle paid tribute to her friend Kerry

SuBo hinted at the possible new tune while paying tribute to Kerry, who recently died of bladder cancer.

Boyle described the singer-songwriter, who was laid to rest in a ceremony today, as “very talented”.

The pair had been due to record a duet before Kerry became ill.

Asked if she might record a song in Kerry’s honour, she said: “We shall see what happens. You never know.”

Speaking from her former council house in Blackburn, a sombre Susan, who did not attend the funeral, told of her close relationship with Kerry.

Wearing a chunky cream cardigan, a floral shirt and lavender knee length skirt, she said: “I want to offer my condolences to Kerry’s family. She was a very nice lady. She was very talented and she’ll be sorely missed.

“I’ve known her for years. I first saw her on X Factor but she became very well known in Midlothian.

“There are not enough words to describe how lovely she was.

“She was very young. We were going go record a song called Wings to Fly but then she got sick.

“I was unable to attend the funeral today but the song we were going to record was played instead.

“You won’t see me smiling today. She was sick for a long time. She’s in a better place now, she’s pain-free and she’s probably happy.”

graysea

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/otlandfeatures/4052928/Whos-top-of-the-mops.html

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Haven't seen this for a while. Just marvelous!

graysea

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Susan Boyle: Singer and Now Businesswoman

By Marie Sheahan Brown

Who can forget the YouTube masterpiece? She strode and sashayed onto the stage with golden stature and confidence. She sparred wittily with the three famous judges, wearied by their long day of auditions in Glasgow, Scotland. She didn’t look the part of a “professional singer,” although one might perceive that being “currently unemployed” at forty-seven left little extra for beauty-shop pampering. Was she, rather, a comedienne? Susan Boyle audition

Then she sang. The formerly skeptical audience stood enraptured, tears welling as she belted out “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Misérables with stunning clarity and passion.

More than five years after the seven-minute audition video aired on Britain’s Got Talent on April 11, 2009, and promptly hit worldwide news feeds, multitudes in America and beyond remember Susan Boyle. Since she first broke Amazon pre-sale records in September 2009, millions have bought her albums. Each year, a new carefully crafted album has been released in time for Christmas. Since 2009, five albums have garnered sixty-three gold and ninety-four platinum sales levels in forty-two countries. Her sixth album, Hope, will be released on October 21 in the United States.

Scottish and United Kingdom audiences thrilled to Miss Boyle’s first full-length concert tours in 2013 and 2014. Now she’s coming to America—home of an immediate and strong support base—starting in San Diego on October 8, and singing her way across the southern half of the United States at venues in twenty cities. A sweep through the northern states could likely follow in the future.

See http://www.susanboylemusic.com/us/events

Many have written about Susan Boyle’s difficult and graced life. Her 2010 autobiography, The Woman I Was Born to Be, is a good source. Now fifty-three, she carefully revealed late in 2013 that, after decades of mistaken assumptions, she had finally been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. The relief of self-knowledge strengthens and encourages her after a lifetime of dealing with debilitating anxiety and panic attacks, and some difficulty in handling emotions and relating comfortably to people.

“This is a point: People may have problems,” she states in a documentary, “but they’ve got other things as well. And they’ve got a lot more to offer.” (Gammon, Lottie, produced, filmed, and directed. “There’s Something About Susan.” Firecracker Films Ltd. for ITV, 45:37 minutes. 2013)

Fewer analyses have considered her role as a small businesswoman and philanthropist whose personal success has enhanced the lives and small businesses of countless others not only in her native Scotland but also in, for example, America.

Miss Boyle, easily mistaken for a stately five feet ten in the famous video, is, in fact, barely over five feet tall with soft, dainty hands and feet—a huggable China doll. So she does qualify as a smallbusinesswoman despite her multimillions in sales, which also benefit business giants like Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited; SYCOmusic (Simon Cowell); Simon & Schuster, Inc.; Amazon; and, more recently, concert tour bus companies. In significant other ways, she retains her focus on the little ones.

The woman who had “never been married, never been kissed” and remains a virgin has, since 2009, given birth with astonishing fecundity. Lewis Hyde well describes her kind of gift and fertility in his 1983 classic, The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property: “I have hoped . . . to speak of the inner gift that we accept as the object of our labor, and the outer gift that has become a vehicle of culture. I am not concerned with gifts given in spite or fear, nor those gifts we accept out of servility or obligation; my concern is the gift we long for, the gift that, when it comes, speaks commandingly to the soul and irresistibly moves us.”

Mr. Hyde first explores traditional “gift economies,” in which citizens are considered wealthy not according to how much they acquire but how much they give. In fictional form, Jean M. Auel’s well-researched Earth’s Children series (The Clan of the Cave Bear and five sequels) describes the creativity and ingenuity that led people to survive, to form communities, and to work cooperatively for mutual benefit. Goods, services, storytelling and musical talents, art, and many other gifts were appreciated in deeper ways than they might be in a typical “market economy.”

According to reviewer JoAnn Schwartz, “Above all, Hyde is interested in examining the effect our current immersion in the market economy and the myth of the free market has both on our view of gifts and on our ability to give and receive them. The market economy is deliberately impersonal, but the whole purpose of the ‘gift economy’ is to establish and strengthen the relationships between us, to connect us one to the other. It is this element of relationship which leads Hyde to speak of gift exchange as ‘erotic’ commerce, opposing eros (the principle of attraction, union, involvement which binds together) to logos (reason and logic in general, the principle of differentiation in particular). A market economy is an emanation of logos.

“In a market economy,” Ms. Schwartz continues, “one can hoard one’s goods without losing wealth. Indeed, wealth is increased by hoarding—although we generally call it ‘saving.’ In contrast, in a gift economy, wealth is decreased by hoarding, for it is the circulation of the gift(s) within the community that leads to increase—increase in connections, increase in relationship strength. Through this book, Hyde helps us focus on the importance of gifts, their flow and movement, and the impact that the modern market place has had on the circulation of gifts.” (http://southerncrossreview.org/4/schwartz.html)

Susan Boyle does appreciate the financial security that she had never known, especially in the fearsome years after her mother died in 2007, when Miss Boyle kept her house cold so that she could afford the heating bill. Yet more important, Susan Boyle has said all along, “I sing to make people happy.” When she was a girl, the gift spoke “commandingly to the soul”—her soul. She honed, honed, honed the gift to perfection over decades of world obscurity. She sees with gratitude and humility the effects of this gift on people worldwide. When this gift is pointed out to her in personal conversation, she bows her head and lowers her eyes shyly. “Thank you.”

Miss Boyle’s fame and financial success have boosted tourism modestly in West Lothian, Scotland, with its pastoral more than spectacular scenery, a region that has suffered from bouts of economic depression and unemployment over the past few centuries. In February 2013, for example, following a centuries-old pattern, the main employer in the area—Halls of Broxburn meat processing plant—was closed by foreign owners, leaving 1,700 unemployed.

Lorraine Campbell co-owns and manages The Balbairdie—a nicely refurbished old hotel and pub in Bathgate, West Lothian. When the economy suffers, The Balbairdie feels it. Asked how she copes, Ms. Campbell replied, “You just keep going.” Happily, the local economy has improved some since 2013, according to Ms. Campbell in April 2014.

Miss Boyle has engaged experts like Andy Stephens, manager; Nicola Phillips, publicist; and Andrew Panton, creative and vocal director, to name a few. She has provided jobs for local personal assistants who handle correspondence, scheduling, wardrobe consultation, and myriad other details; gardeners; carpenters to renovate the council house she grew up and still lives in (her first big post-Britain’s Got Talent purchase); a housekeeper; women who fix her hair, do her nails, and apply her makeup for special public appearances and photo sessions; and others who tend to basic needs of a now-busy celebrity who still prefers to live in her home village, stop in at her favorite small shops and establishments, and take the bus.

Miss Boyle has also given seed money and sponsorship for creative business and charitable ventures in her local community and beyond. One start-up, Boyle’s Boutique, is an extended-family cottage industry that sells, among others, products featuring the new Boyle Tartan created for the family. Products may be ordered online.

Susan Boyle’s very capable personal assistant Sadie Boyle (no relation) says Miss Boyle gets about four hundred emails weekly, many requesting her generosity. This kind of response to another’s fame and fortune is not uncommon.

More unusual, and a clearer example of the fruits of the “gift economy,” is the generation of a worldwide community of Susan Boyle supporter-fans who have formed friendships, discovered or rekindled their own creative gifts, invested thousands of volunteer hours, spread financial generosity, and—to a small extent—started creative cottage enterprises for profit or merely to cover expenses.

Several unofficial Susan Boyle fansites live on the Internet. The first and largest, still flourishing, is www.susan-boyle.com. On April 11, 2009, Paul Wood, a London construction worker, watched Miss Boyle’s audition on TV and immediately put up a website. Starting within hours after the audition aired, people from many continents to whom Susan Boyle’s gift spoke “commandingly to the soul” were “irresistibly move[d]” to find out anything they could about her on the Internet. They frequently stumbled across Mr. Wood’s hastily launched site with its prolific discussion threads generating hundreds of written comments every day in the first two months of Miss Boyle’s fame.

To bring some order to the conversational chaos, Mr. Wood launched a companion Forum in June 2009 with more sophisticated software, accessed through the main website. Anyone could (and still can) join for free. The main rules are that one not be an Internet troll (a term and experience many had never heard of), that one behave reasonably civilly as outlined in posted guidelines, and that one not use the Forum itself for commercial purposes (more on that later).

Volunteer moderators and techies keep the discussions and online experience on an even keel. Online advertisements generated by Google AdSense and Amazon sales linked to the website (“SuBo Store”) help pay for the normal operational expenses.

In early 2010, Mr. Wood announced that he was going to auction off the website (some fifty thousand registered members) and its Forum (a few thousand registered members at the time). The worldwide member community could not bear the prospect of being taken over by some unknown commercial entity with other goals. So they decided to bid on the fansite themselves. A few members—by no means wealthy—each voluntarily loaned trusted fellow members a few thousand dollars to buy the fansite during the auction. The effort succeeded in July 2010.

Navigating through some tensions and hurt feelings (typical in any community anywhere), the worldwide Susan Boyle Fans International, Inc. (SBFII) community established itself as a non-profit corporation registered in Delaware, USA. SBFII elects a multinational volunteer board of directors; keeps meticulous financial records and files annual tax returns; maintains bylaws; and holds online annual meetings and elections engaging active members. Technically not a charity, SBFII uses AdSense and SuBo Store income to cover modest expenses and keep a healthy bank balance. Funds left over from voluntary collections (often for tasteful gifts for Miss Boyle for special occasions) are donated to a charity of Susan Boyle’s choice, frequently benefitting children in Scotland. By December 2011, SBFII repaid all interest-free loans given by members to buy the website; it remains debt free. No member gets paid for services to SBFII or personally benefits financially.

From the beginning, even silver-haired grandmothers proficient only with email learned to navigate the fansites in order to participate in a community of people who have experienced an inexplicable response to Susan Boyle—both her singing and her unique way of being—unlike their response to other favorite singers. Within months, members began gathering in person around the globe (often in restaurants, boosting local economies). They attended (and surreptitiously filmed and posted to the fansites for the enjoyment of those who could not attend) Miss Boyle’s performances in various cities (Britain’s Got Talent tour venues in the UK; Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Tokyo, and more). Supporter-fans flocked to these events even though—until only 2013, when she first tried her own full-length concerts in Scotland—Miss Boyle was slated to sing just one, two, maybe three songs. These gatherings supported local hotels, B+Bs, restaurants, cab drivers, shops, and other travel-related businesses.

Miss Boyle and her team soon experienced that supporter-fans who came to these early events were older or at least more mature than stereotypical rowdies at, for example, Justin Bieber concerts. They saw that typical Susan Boyle supporter-fans are responsible, respectful, fun loving, generative. They include retired or active professionals—teachers, nurses, techies, writers, musicians, artists, farmers, truckers, businesspeople, social workers, radio hosts, professors, lawyers, homemakers, construction workers, postmasters, foresters.

To most gatherings (usually at restaurants) supporter-fans bring homemade memorabilia to share, including commemorative buttons and red scarves to identify themselves in various venues. The popularity of such items led SBFII to add another linked site, “Fan Creations,” linked in turn to the creators’ individual websites. Products include non-Susan-Boyle-related fan creations. Currently, three members offer SuBotique Hand Painted Apparel; Creative Images by tweek (Buttons, Mugs, etc.); and Susan Boyle Professional Singer chronicles gathered from news and other sources.

SBFII members often post creative ideas and images to discuss in writing with one another. Memorably, in 2009, a member from Texas, one from Iowa, and other volunteers, coordinated an international quilting bee. Supporter-fans from every continent, including Antarctica, created and mailed squares for a handmade quilt presented to Miss Boyle at a brunch following her debut solo appearance on the Todayshow on November 23—the day her first album, I Dreamed A Dream, was released in the United States and quickly broke world records in several categories.

Members can upload Susan-related videos that they have created; share poems that they’ve written; upload posters that they’ve designed digitally to document Miss Boyle’s career and accomplishments; upload news reports of supporter-fan activities, complete with photographs; post fine pencil drawings or paintings displaying talent the artists had only recently discovered; and offer a place where members can contribute their own essays. These essays, sometimes written in French or other non-English languages, often try to explain how the wee singer with the big voice; the shy woman who communicates profoundly—cor ad cor loquitur—through music others have written; the multimillionaire who stays in her small lifelong home and still takes the bus—the essentially inexplicable Susan Boyle—“irresistibly moves” them.

SBFII and other volunteers take responsibility to daily and positively post or re-post Susan Boyle news, photos, and encounters on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Their Internet involvement began immediately when Miss Boyle became famous—and once again experienced the bullying known since childhood, only this time inflicted by some members of the media and anonymous commentators. She writes in her autobiography, “What I didn’t know then, because I didn’t have a computer at the time, was that every time there was a mean comment about me in the press, a dozen messages of support would appear in response. On the Internet there was a growing community of fans. I had no idea how many people out there in the world felt moved to stick up for me, and I want to thank everybody for that.” (The Woman I Was Born to Be, pages 188–189)

Miss Boyle’s professional team also encourages creativity from fans. Starting with the first documentary of her life, Susan Boyle: I Dreamed A Dream, produced in 2009 by Talkback Thames, fans were invited via the official www.susanboylemusic.com site (picked up and promoted by volunteer sites) to send short videos of themselves saying “Hello, Susan!” with backdrops representing their locations. Several clips from around the world were chosen for the documentary. As a lead-up to Miss Boyle’s second album, The Gift, she held a worldwide “Susan’s Search” competition, inviting any amateur singer to upload a brief selfie singing “Silent Night.” The winner, Amber Stassi, a thirty-three-year-old paramedic from Brewerton, New York, sang “Do You Hear What I Hear?” with Miss Boyle on the album and at the 2010 outdoor Today show appearance in New York City.

In the 2013 and 2014 concert tours in Scotland and the United Kingdom, Miss Boyle and her team selected local choirs to serve as back-up choruses in every city, receiving standard financial compensation. Already individual choir members in the United States are tweeting: “Aaliyah Buchanan ‏@Itsuko_Sora I’m to pumped, i get to sing for Susan Boyle!!!!” and “Drew Mikuska ‏@DrewMikuska Hahahahaha I’m singing backup for Susan Boyle.”

Already in the twenty cities spanning the southern United States, supporter-fans from as far away as Australia and Scotland are buying tickets. They are organizing pre-concert dinner-camaraderie gatherings for supporter-fans, some of whom they have never met in person but know through their written posts on fansites. Restaurants, hotels, theaters, airlines, public transportation providers, cab drivers, and many small businesses will benefit. Susan Boyle, her team, and numerous music-related vendors will profit.

Yet in Susan Boyle’s “gift economy,” which she neither forecasted nor manipulated, money can facilitate but cannot possibly buy the greatest benefits to the community in which she finds herself to be the generator and principal member. In this higher economy, she is both blessed herself and a blessing to countless others.

As recently reported on her official website, Susan says about her upcoming United States concert tour: “This is a brilliant moment for me. The past five years have been incredible, and it just keeps getting better. I have spoken so often about wanting to tour America and be able to visit different cities for the first time—I’m so excited. This really will be fantastic, and I can’t wait for October. The US embraced and supported me from the beginning, and it really feels like a second home. So I can’t wait to get on the road and perform there.”

Source:Small Business Exchange Northeast