There's no place like home! Susan Boyle beams as she attends the local village gala in her hometown of Blackburn today

graysea

There's no place like home! Susan Boyle beams as she attends the local village gala in her hometown of Blackburn today

PUBLISHED: 17:28 EST, 9 June 2012 | UPDATED: 17:57 EST, 9 June 2012

Susan Boyle couldn’t hide her delight as she attended the local village gala in her hometown of Blackburn, West Lothian today.

The multi-millionaire singer was the guest of honour at the annual event and despite worldwide success and recognition, it appeared as if the acknowledgement of her hometown was the most important thing to Susan.

She positively beamed as she walked the red carpet in a matching trouser suit with a tartan collar and red shoes.

Can't hide her delight! Susan Boyle looks thrilled to pose with Disney characters and local children as she attends the annual gala day in her hometown of Blackburn, West Lothian

Young girls in pretty dresses held up an arch of pink and white flowers for her to walk under and Boyle didn’t seem to mind as it hit off her head.

Other highlights including Susan posing for pictures with Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck and some delighted youngsters, who were clearly thrilled to have the former Britain’s Got Talent finalist in their midst.

Susan showed off her playful side as she arrived in an open-top convertible.

Mind your head: Good natured Susan finds it hilarious as her head hits off the floral arch held up by some local children in her hometown today

Lady in red: Susan's bright outfit matches the specially laid on red carpet at the gala day out

The 51-year-old singer appeared fascinated with a toy monkey in the car beside her and was seen joking around with it.

Susan also triumphantly raised her arms above her head and was seen laughing uproariously as she sat in the car.

Susan moved out of her semi-detached home in the West Lothian village and into a new £400,000 home after she found fame.

A cheerful Susan looks like just another local villager as she takes her seat at the Blackburn gala today

However, the performer famously missed the house where her parents had lived and the daily contact with her neighbours so much that she came home.

She told pals she was desperate to return to her modest semi because it's where she feels happy and secure.

Today Susan got into the spirit of things at her house by decorating the end of terrace house with flags and bunting in honour of the occasion.

Playful! The down to earth superstar jokes around as she arrives in a convertible with a toy monkey

Fans of the star will be happy to see her in good spirits after she threw a tantrum when she had to wait for coffee at a motorway service station just over a week ago.

She is said to have yelled ‘I just want to go home’ before launching into a foul-mouthed tirade and bursting into tears.

Parents covered their children’s ears and onlookers were shocked into silence as the woman catapulted to fame on Britain’s Got Talent went into meltdown.

Happy to be home: Susan is thrilled to take part in the gala in her hometown of Blackburn, West Lothian today

Raise your hands if you're a Susan Boyle fan! The singer gets into the spirit of things at the annual village event

However, a source close to Miss Boyle said: ‘Everyone knows that Susan is not able to express her emotions as many would which adds to her frustration.

‘She wanted to go home as she was tired and upset and wanted to be in the sanctuary of her own house.

‘She is very grateful for the amazing life she is now living and wouldn’t swop it for the world.

‘Susan is very sorry to anyone she upset.’

A spokesman for Miss Boyle declined to comment.

Getting into the party spirit: Susan even decorated her house before leaving for the village festivities today

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2156994/Susan-Boyle-help-beaming-attends-local-village-gala-hometown-Blackburn-West-Lothian-today.html#ixzz1xLOmQDV0

graysea

Susan was at the Blackburn Gala today.

Graeme Shinwell, posted these beautiful pictures on Facebook today. He attended the BB Gala Day with his wife and Moria and took these wonderful pictures of Susan. Thank you for sharing your great pictures. These pictures show a very happy Susan enjoying the day with friends in Blackburn. I love the wave to fans as she rides in the parade car. She has on her wonderful Joyce Young red pantsuit that she wore in China. She looks lovely!

Pictures below from Twitter

More pictures

Melissa Wright.‏@melissaawrightt
TOLD YOUS I'D SEE HER.

graysea

Paul McCartney Mull Of Kintyre Lyrics

Mull of kintyre

Oh mist rolling in from the sea,
My desire is always to be here
Oh mull of kintyre
Far have I traveled and much have I seen
Dark distant mountains with valleys of green.
Past painted deserts the sunsets on fire
As he carries me home to the mull of kintyre.

Mull of kintyre
Oh mist rolling in from the sea,
My desire is always to be here
Oh mull of kintyre
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/paul+mccartney/mull+of+kintyre_20105667.html ]
Sweep through the heather like deer in the glen
Carry me back to the days I knew then.
Nights when we sang like a heavenly choir
Of the life and the time of the mull of kintyre.

Mull of kintyre
Oh mist rolling in from the sea,
My desire is always to be here
Oh mull of kintyre

Smiles in the sunshine
And tears in the rain
Still take me back to where my memories remain
Flickering embers growing higher and higher
As they carry me back to the mull of kintyre

Mull of kintyre
Oh mist rolling in from the sea,
My desire is always to be here
Oh mull of kintyre

Mull of kintyre
Oh mist rolling in from the sea,
My desire is always to be here
Oh mull of kintyre

graysea

Thank you Mauro, for the few nice pictures of lovely Susan on Facebook.

graysea

Susan Boyle: An Unlikely Superstar

Event Details

Time: June 9, 2012 from 8pm to 10pm
Location: ITV3
Event Type: tv, show
Organized By: N/A
Latest Activity: 2 hours ago

Export to Outlook or iCal (.ics)

Event Description

Award-winning film-maker Osca Humphreys follows the daily life of the woman whose success has become one of the most extraordinary stories of our time. This film examines how Susan Boyle has been coping with her new life as an international star and asks whether fame and fortune have actually made her happy. There is footage of Susan recording in the studio, travelling to Shanghai for a stadium performance and in a meeting with Simon Cowell

graysea · 7th June 2012

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

News

Susan’s best video result

7th June 2012

Last week we asked you what your favourite ever Susan video was. As a testament to the incredible breadth of Susan’s performances and the overwhelming love of her fans, we were truly inundated with responses. So many of you shared personal stories of your favourite Susan video, the memories they instilled in you and what the song meant to you. Of all the amazing responses, there was one that stood out as being a seminal moment in Susan’s life. A song that captured the hearts of millions across the globe, it was of course Susan’s beautiful version of ‘I Dreamed A Dream’.

I Dreamed A Dream

Another hugely popular choice was Susan’s version of the Madonna song “You’ll See”. This is a stunningly emotive performance that perfectly depicts Susan’s musical journey into the consummate vocalist that she is today.

You’ll See http://www.susanboylemusic.com/gb/news/item/susans_best_video_result/

graysea

Rutherglen actor delighted to see himself on the big screen

Jun 6 2012

I enjoyed reading (patron to the Regal, indeed) this paragraph that was in the middle of the article:

“I was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Peter Mullan and Ken Loach, and next week I’ll be meeting Susan Boyle who is the patron to the (Regal) Theatre in Bathgate (where Scott is artistic director).

http://iclanarkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/tm_headline=rutherglen-actor-delighted-to-see-himself-on-the-big-screen%26method=full%26objectid=31119097%26siteid=63227-name_page.html

graysea

Inverness - I Dreamed A Dream

Monday, June 11, 2012

Public Event · By Susan Boyle

INVERNESS, Eden Court
Monday 11 - Saturday 16 June 2012
Box Office: 01463 234 234/eden-court.co.uk

WIN I Dreamed a Dream Manchester tickets

Date: 7 June 2012

Are you a fan of Susan Boyle? We have two pairs of tickets to see the new musical I Dreamed a Dream which may feature an appearance from the lady herself.

ABOUT THIS OFFER:
WIN one of two pairs of tickets to see I Dreamed a Dream at Manchester's Palace Theatre on Tues, 19 June at 7.30pm.
ABOUT THE SHOW:

I Dreamed a Dream

Susan Boyle will make a guest appearance in this new musical that charts her extraordinary story.

Starring Elaine C Smith, best known as Mary Doll in BBC TV’s Rab C Nesbitt, the musical follows Susan Boyle’s meteoric rise from humble beginnings to global icon and features signature songs from her multi-platinum selling albums.
Don't miss your chance to see this amazing production featuring a special performance from Susan herself.*
This astounding musical will make you laugh and cry but most of all dream. If she can dare to dream so can you.
And our friends at Manchester's Palace Theatre are inviting you and a friend to see the show for free!
Although the producers of I Dreamed a Dream cannot guarantee the appearance of any artist, Susan Boyleis expected to appear at all performances subject to unforeseen circumstances.
Winning Venue
Palace Theatre, Manchester - Tues 19 June at 7.30pm.

HOW TO ENTER:
To WIN a pair of tickets to see I Dreamed a Dream at the Palace Theatre - Manchester on Tues 19 June at 7.30pm, just answer this simple question:
Who plays Susan Boyle in the show?
and send your answer and full name and address in an email to glenn@whatsonstage.com making thesubject heading Susan comp by the closing date on Wed 13th June at 12pm.
http://www.whatsonstage.com/offers/theatre/london/E8831339062961/WIN+I+Dreamed+a+Dream+Manchester+tickets.html

graysea

Susan Boyle meeting the Queen of England.

Susan sang Mull of Kintyre at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June 2012

graysea

Celebritology

Posted at 12:39 PM ET, 06/06/2012

Kathryn Joosten and the myth that youth is always king

By Jen Chaney

Joosten, clutching the first of her two Emmys, which she won in her 60s. (Fred Prouser - Reuters)A career in Hollywood is meant for the young. That’s a truth that has been self-evident since the earliest days of cinema, when audiences first looked in awe at a luminous, wrinkle-free face blown-up large on a massive movie screen.

But the recent deaths of two well-known figures served as a reminder that the entertainment industry’s youth-is-king rule, like all rules, occasionally does get broken.

On Saturday, character actressKathryn Joosten — best known as the ever-faithful Mrs. Landingham on “The West Wing” and the cranky yet sympathetic Karen McCluskey on “Desperate Housewives” — died of lung cancer at the age of 72; the next day, “Family Feud” hostRichard Dawson died of esophageal cancer at age 79.

Career-wise, the two traveled different paths, but they shared one thing in common: The successes that made them famous didn’t come their way until both were over 40.

Dawson was a known actor and personality in his 20s and 30s, thanks to stints on “Hogan’s Heroes” and “Laugh-In,” as well as “Match Game.” But the gig that ultimately defined him was as the smooth, smoochy host of “Family Feud,” a job that began in 1976, when he was 43.

Joosten’s case, as many of her obituaries noted, was even more striking; she was 42 when she left her profession as a psychiatric nurse and started acting full-time. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream at the age of 55. Ten years later, at 65, she won the first of her two Emmy Awards.

That’s an inspiring narrative. But what’s even more inspiring is that Joosten is not alone in her industry, even if all those Demi Lovato magazine covers and OMG-peppered celebrity blogosphere comments often make us forget that. Many accomplished actors and artists didn’t make it big, or even get their start, until they were at or near what we typically think of as midlife.

John Mahoney, the man who occupied memorable roles in “Moonstruck,” “Say Anything...” and on TV’s “Frasier”? He left a career as a medical journalist to become an actor when he was almost 40.

Susan Boyle sang famously about “dreaming a dream” on “Britain’s Got Talent” a few days after her 48th birthday. Now, at 51, she’s a multi-millionaire who recently performed during the queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

Although many knew who Jon Stewart was before he landed on “The Daily Show,” he didn’t achieve household-name status until, at age 37, he became America’s premier political satirist.

Oh, and George Clooney? You’ve probably heard of him. He didn’t break out big until he started treating patients on “E.R.” at the age of 33, and, arguably, didn’t become a bona fide movie star until he appeared in Steven Soderbergh’s “Out of Sight” when he was 37.

Yes, dewy faces and legs devoid of varicose veins are still the norm in celebrity-land. That’s the circle of pop culture life, the one that keeps the rising-star-osphere spinning and allows preteens to continue rolling their eyes at their parents for not knowing who Carly Rae Jepsen is. (Pssst... she sings “Call Me Maybe,” that pop confection that has already permanently implanted itself in your brain and will remain there for the entire summer.)

But Joosten, Dawson and others prove that it is still possible after a “certain” age to figure out what your signature something is and go do it. Is it rare? Yes. But it is possible. In a culture that, for better and worse, is often led by celebrity example, that’s reassuring to know.

After all, if people have managed to do it in Hollywood, the land where the repair of broken dreams usually involves a few hits of Botox, it can be done anywhere.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/kathryn-joosten-and-the-myth-that-youth/2012/06/06/gJQAVM3rIV_blog.html

SB picture from file.

graysea

Please forward video to all. Great video to let all know about Susan.

graysea

Pictures from Facebook today.

Lisa, a devoted Susan fan, wrote this about Susan and I agree so much.

"I love her, where there is a charity event, there is Susan WANTING to help out anyone and everyone she can. The thing is, it dont have to be a charity event where people feel she has helped them. What a sweetheart of a lady."

#TattyTeddy met the wonderful Calendar Girls & Susan Boyle recently. Have you seen him yet? http://bit.ly/JT3k6C http://pic.twitter.com/azObXJuB

http://leukaemialymphomaresearch.org.uk/get-involved/company-fundraising/our-corporate-partners/ms/putting-childhood-leukaemia-bed/wheres-ta?utm_source=press&utm_medium=media&utm_campaign=mands&utm

graysea

Susan Boyle is Dreamin’ of piano stardom

By DAVID WYNN

Published: Today at 00:57

SINGING superstar Susan Boyle is taking piano lessons so she can play on her new album.

SuBo, 51, has been desperate to learn the instrument since buying one two years ago.

The I Dreamed A Dream star has hired a local tutor to teach her how to tinkle the ivories at home in Blackburn, West Lothian.

And she hopes to show off her keyboard talents on her fourth release.

Last night a source said: “Susan loves the piano and always dreamed of being able to reach a standard which would allow her to play on stage and on her albums.

“She is apparently doing really well with the tutor.

“Susan’s determined to become a pianist and it would be wonderful if she was able to play in front of all her fans.”

Her management declined to comment.

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/4356686/Susan-Boyle-is-Dreamin-of-piano-stardom.html

Note: Picture from my file

graysea

Kathy Coon (Susan Boyle - The Information Resource) has sent over the link to Nic Lewis' review of the Susan Boyle Musical. Nic's review has a bit of new information that I don't recall reading about in other reports. I believe you will find this review very interesting and different to what you have seen to date.

www.susanboyle.info/shows-musical-review01.html

http://www.susanboyle.info/

http://www.susanboyle.info/index.html

graysea

Susan singing Mull of Kintyre at the Windsor Horse Show Jubilee Pageant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOAFE70CezE&feature=player_embedded

graysea

Paige Turley‏@turley_paige
such a good day yesterday, thought it would be a normal gig to my surprise susanboyle presenting me with an award #happygirl

Paige Turley‏@turley_paige
http://twitter.com/turley_paige/status/209669192381775872/photo/1

graysea

graysea

Susan Boyle Meets the Queen of England! A dream come true!

graysea

graysea

Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle is reported to have had an emotional outburst at a motorway service station in the UK.

Boyle - Reportedly had to be calmed by an aide

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