Susan Boyle treats home town fans to special performance

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Susan Boyle treats home town fans to special performance

Oct 11 2012 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

A coach load of Susan Boyle fans from West Lothian went to Edinburgh to watch the musical based on the singing sensation’s life.

Over 50 friends from Blackburn and Bathgate made the trip through to the Festival Theatre for a performance of I Dreamed A Dream

And they had an extra special treat when SuBo stunned them with an unexpected finale.

The 51-year-old took to the stage at the end of the show and thrilled the audience members as she performed I Dreamed a Dream and I Am Who I Was Born To Be, with the theatre-goers giving her a standing ovation

Organiser Kirsty Stein said: “We are all from Blackburn originally and know Susan.

“Some of us had gone to Newcastle to see the show and it was so fantastic that we wanted to encourage people to see it when it came up to Scotland.

“Anushka Campbell organised the tickets and we could have sold them three or four times over as there was such a demand for them.

“The whole day was excellent fun and we had a really good laugh and sing-a-long on the bus.

“We had a great night at the show and we are all so proud of her. She came on the stage at the end and it was a real treat to see her perform.

“Elaine C Smith, who plays Susan in the show, was great and did a wonderful job.

“It’s a really emotional story and it was a brilliant performance from everyone.”

I Dreamed A Dream is on at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow until October 13.

graysea

‏@jamesmiller_

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.pic.twitter.com/BCyLLGMX

graysea

Susan Boyle Preps Showtunes Album With Guests

by ANDREW TIJS on OCTOBER 8, 2012

Viral sensation Susan Boyle will release an album of stage and film songs with guest spots from Donny Osmond and Michael Crawford.

The album, Standing Ovation, is her fourth in three years, capitalising on the breakout viral success of her Britain’s Got Talent. Her debut album is 10-times platinum in Australia, The Gift triple-platinum and last year’s Someone To Watch Over Me is double-platinum

She says of Standing Ovation, “I have been a fan of musicals since I was a wee girl. I love them and have enjoyed the drama and the range of emotions they inspire in you. I still remember the first time I saw Les Mis, my all-time favourite. I fell in love with it and have seen it now countless times as each time you watch it you draw something different.”

Sixties teen idol Donny Osmond joins her on ‘All I Ask Of You’ and ‘This Is The Moment’, and the original Phantom, Michael Crawford, helps out on ‘The Music Of The Night’.

She continues, “Creating this album was a joy and came very naturally as I knew the songs and could identify with the characters in the studio. Recording with Donny on two songs was a dream come true. Working with him was awesome and I learned so much from him as a performer and a person. Being in the studio with him was without doubt the best day ever- it wasn’t work!”

Standing Ovation will be released on November 16 through Sony. Check out the tracklist below.

Standing Ovation tracklist
1. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
2. The Winner Takes It All
3. Send In The Clowns
4. The Music Of The Night (feat. Michael Crawford)
5. Bring Him Home
6. Memory
7. As Long As He Needs Me
8. All I Ask Of You (feat. Donny Osmond)
9. Out Here On My Own
10. You’ll Never Walk Alone
11. This Is The Moment (feat. Donny Osmond)

http://www.noise11.com/news/susan-boyle-preps-showtunes-album-with-guests-20121008

graysea

Norm Clarke | NORM

Boyle, Osmond set to join forces

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

Susan Boyle, seen in Scotland in August, is scheduled to perform in Las Vegas next week.

Enlarge

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE

Susan Boyle, seen in Scotland in August, is scheduled to perform in Las Vegas next week.

With an assist from Donny Osmond, Scottish sensation Susan Boyle makes her much-anticipated Las Vegas debut next week.Posted: Oct. 11, 2012 | 2:04 a.m.

The U.K.'s hottest chart-topping female solo singer in 65 years will perform a duet of "This is the Moment" with Osmond on Wednesday at the Flamingo.

During her appearance on Donny and Marie Osmond's show, Boyle, 51, will add a solo of "Who I Was Born to Be."

Boyle became a breakout star in April 2009 when she sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables" on "Britain's Got Talent."

That audition performance, which led to an astounding 500 million hits on YouTube.com, ignited speculation that it would only be a matter of time before she landed in Las Vegas.

Her backstory only added to her folk-hero status: A miner's daughter, Boyle overcame a learning disability and turned to singing for her local Catholic church.

Her debut album, "I Dreamed a Dream," shattered Amazon.com's pre-order records and was the fastest-selling debut album in 2009.

It became the No. 1 song in 21 countries, making her the biggest-selling artist of the year. She is the first female artist to have three successive albums debut at No. 1 on the U.K. album chart in less than two years.

"This is the Moment" is one of the songs from her new album "Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs From the Stage," which will be released Nov. 13. Donny Osmond is on her album.

In Wednesday's news release, Boyle said "two of my lifelong dreams are going to come true on Oct. 17. Not only will I be singing with one of my all-time idols, Donny Osmond, but I will be performing on the Las Vegas stage for the first time."

It appears Donny Osmond has been helping her make it happen.

Osmond was quoted in the media release as saying, "Since I met Susan a few years ago, we have been discussing performing together and I am so glad that our plan is finally coming to fruition. Our fans will get a sneak peek of the songs we recorded for Susan's new album by hearing us perform together on stage at the Flamingo Showroom."

http://www.lvrj.com/news/boyle-osmond-set-to-join-forces-173662931.html

graysea · October 2012

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

October 2012

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News

Susan Boyle’s Vegas show with The Osmonds

Duet ... Susan Boyle and Donny Osmond will appear together twice

By MARC DEANIE

Published: 10th October 2012

SUSAN Boyle is to perform with The Osmonds at a sell-out show in a Las Vegas casino.

The singing star will appear as a special guest alongside 70s music legends Donny and Marie at the plush Flamingo Hotel next week.

And thrilled SuBo, 51, will also duet with former pop pin-up Donny in Los Angeles the night before — on TV hit Dancing With The Stars.

Last night Susan said: “I am very excited to be going to Las Vegas — this is a dream come true.

“Singing with Donny twice in the space of 24 hours is just wonderful and really unbelievable. I still have to pinch myself that this is really happening.”

The superstar from Blackburn, West Lothian, added: “Going to the bright lights of Vegas and singing will be great and I can’t wait to have a look at all the sights.

“Who knows, I may have a wee flutter on the cards, although I don’t think I’ll be one of those high rollers.”

Last week we told how the I Dreamed A Dream star bagged her favourite singer Donny for two duets on her new album Standing Ovation.

SuBo, who shot to fame on Britain’s Got Talent, said: “Being in the studio with him was the best day ever — it wasn’t work! Recording with Donny was a dream.”

marc.deanie@the-sun.co.uk

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/feeds/smartphone/scotland/4581335/.html#ixzz290IfSv2i

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Susan Boyle - Susan Boyle thrilled to perform with Donny Osmond

10 October 2012

Susan Boyle is delighted to be flying to Las Vegas to perform with her childhood idol Donny Osmond.Susan Boyle thrilled to perform with Donny Osmond

Susan Boyle is ''ecstatic'' about performing with Donny Osmond.

The singer - who shot to fame on 'Britain's Got Talent' - is flying out to America to duet with her musical hero on 'Dancing with theStars

: All Stars' before joining Donny and his sister Marie on stage during their sold-out Las Vegas show next Wednesday (17.10.12).

Susan said: ''I am ecstatic at the moment. Going to LA to perform on 'Dancing with the Stars' with Donny and then off to Vegas to perform with Donny & Marie.

''I can't wait. Bring it on. I'm looking forward to Vegas and you never know I may have a wee flutter in the casino.

''I will also be making sure I do the helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.''

The 51-year-old star

is such a big fan of the 'Puppy Love' singer that she sleeps under a duvet emblazoned with his face at her Scottish home, and she can't believe her childhood dreams are coming true.

Susan enthused: ''I've said since 2009 that I'd love to sing in Vegas and now singing

with Donny in Vegas well, I'm over the moon.''

The singing sensation has recorded two duets with Donny, 'All I Ask of You' and 'This is the Moment', which will feature on her new album

'Standing Ovation' released on November 19.
http://www.contactmusic.com/news/susan-boyle-thrilled-to-perform-with-donny-osmond_3319027

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Michael Crawford - Michael Crawford Revives Phantom Hit With Susan Boyle

09 October 2012

Michael Crawfordhttp://www.contactmusic.com/news/michael-crawford-revives-phantom-hit-with-susan-boyle_3318500

Michael Crawfordhas reworked his The Music Of The Night hit from Phantom Of The Opera for a new duet with Susan Boyle.

The Scottish singing sensation asked the actorto join her in the studio for a track on her upcoming fourth album, which features beloved tunes from the great stage musicals - and Crawford was happy to oblige.

The album, Standing Ovation, also features two duets with Donny Osmond.

Boyle covers songs from Mamma Mia!, A Little Night Music and Cats.

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SuBo's delight: "Ecstatic" Susan Boyle jetting out to sing with her hero Donny Osmond in Las Vegas

She is such a big fan of Donny that she still has a duvet cover with his face on over her bed at home in Scotland

Susan Boyle is going to America to sing with her idol Donny Osmond in Las Vegas.

The Britain’s Got Talent star will first fly to Los Angeles next week to perform with Donny on Dancing With The Stars.

She will then join Donny and Marie Osmond on stage in Vegas as part of their sell-out show the following evening.

Donny features on Subo’s new album, due out later this year.

Susan, 51, said: “I am ecstatic at the moment.

"Going to LA to perform on Dancing With the Stars with Donny and then off to Vegas to perform with Donny & Marie.

"I can’t wait. Bring it on.

“I’m looking forward to Vegas and you never know I may have a wee flutter in the casino.

"I will also be making sure I do the helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

“I’ve said since 2009 that I’d love to sing in Vegas and now singing with Donny in Vegas well, I’m over the moon.”

Donny is jetting Susan to Vegas on his private jet in between gigs.

She is such a big fan of Donny that she still has a duvet cover with his face on over her bed at home in Scotland.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/going-out/music/susan-boyle-to-sing-with-donny-osmond-1369884

graysea

Greetings!

Have I got some news for you!

You'll want to watch ABC's Dancing With The Stars on Oct 16th, as I make a special guest appearance with Susan Boyle that evening. Tune in to see us perform LIVE for the first time ever! (I can't believe it's been three years since I won! It still feels like yesterday.)

Susan Boyle and I recorded not one... but two duets scheduled for release next month! She will also make an appearance at The Donny & Marie show in Vegas -- Oct 17th.

Speaking of... the Donny & Marie Vegas show just got an upgrade with a new rendition of one of my classics -- Soldier of Love.

Join me on Facebook and Twitter, and don't miss another update!

Susan Boyle / Donny Osmond Duets

Susan Boyle returns with a stunning album of songs from the golden era of film and stage, which showcases duets with her lifelong idol Donny Osmond.Click here to listen!

For more information about the upcoming album, click here.

Donny Osmond and Susan Boyle will make a guest appearance on Dancing With The Stars on October 16th.

Additionally, Susan will make a special appearance on Oct 17th in Vegas at The Donny & Marie Show. Get your tickets atDonnyandMarie.com.

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Donny-Osmond-and-Susan-Boyle----Duets-.html?soid=1109453521954&aid=Y3WJWSGDYxI

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Donny Osmond And Susan Boyle To Perform On Dancing With The Stars Oct.16th

Just a little heads up on next week’s entertainment

!!! Susan Boyle and Donny Osmond will be performing on the Results show. Below is a tweet from Donny….

Susan Boyle and I will sing a duet on Dancing With The Stars #AllStars on Oct 16. @susanboylehq #DWTS

October 5, 2012 3:34 pm via HootSuite ReplyRetweetFavorite

@donnyosmond

Donny Osmond

In case you don’t know, the two have recently recorded two songs together for her new album “Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs From The Stage”. Donny is one of Susan’s idols. You can read all about her and Donny and her album at the Daily Mail.

http://www.puredwts.com/2012/10/07/donny-osmond-and-susan-boyle-to-perform-on-dancing-with-the-stars-oct-16th/

graysea

Photo was taken on September 6, 2012 at The Bathgate Regal when Susan attended the Showcase there. It was posted on Facebook.

Susan Boyle and my new Facebook friend from the Regal Community theater
Maureen Docherty-Nagle

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Notice Annette in the red and Frank Quinn, Susan's teacher, confidant and friend at the end.

Photobucket

"Not every day you see Subo out and about in uni"

Photo taken today (October 8, 2012) at Queen Margaret University, where Susan received her Honorary Doctorate earlier. Photo was posted on twitter.

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Amazing, magnificent, marvelous, splendid, outstanding,

tremendous, glorious, spectacular and that is just the singer, not

to mention that the songs are out of this world. Bloody fantastic!

graysea

Susan Boyle new album tracklisting

added: 8 Oct 2012 // by: Music-News.com Newsdesk

Singing sensation Susan Boyle returns with a stunning album of songs from the golden era of film and stage, her fourth studio album in three years.

'Standing Ovation', sees Susan Boyle and world acclaimed producer Biff Stannard join forces to present a sensational album that will span the generations.

Featuring breathtaking renditions of 'Send in the Clowns' and 'Bring Him Home', Susan fearlessly takes on the iconic song 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' giving it a new identity. 'Standing Ovation' also showcases duets with her lifelong idol Donny Osmond and the 'Phantom' himself Michael Crawford.

The album heralds a return to an era of much loved music for Susan Boyle, a lifelong fan of musicals. Her favourite songs from the golden age of film and theatre fused with her outstanding vocals from the ethereal to the dramatic, the music showcases the voice the world fell in love with.

Talking about her album Susan said; 'I have been a fan of musicals since I was a wee girl. I love them and have enjoyed the drama and the range of emotions they inspire in you. I still remember the first time I saw Les Mis, my all time favourite. I fell in love with it and have seen it now countless times as each time you watch it you draw something different.
Creating this album was a joy and came very naturally as I knew the songs and could identify with the characters in the studio. Recording with Donny on two songs was a dream come true. Working with him was awesome and I learned so much from him as a performer and a person. Being in the studio with him was without doubt the best day ever- it wasn't work!'

Donny Osmond said; 'I remember watching Susan's debut on Britain's Got Talent. I had the same reaction Simon Cowell and the rest of the world had. Susan has the voice of an angel; I consider it an honor that she asked me to be featured on her album.

Standing Ovation was produced by Biff Stannard in Glasgow and London. Stannard is a highly regarded producer who in the past has worked with Kylie Minogue, U2, Westlife and One Direction to name a few.

Known best for her element of surprise and a powerful and heart stopping voice, Susan has become a global top selling artist. The phenomenal album sales, record breaking achievements and multi platinum chart domination- Susan has come a long way from the Britain's Got Talent stage in 2009.

To date her previous three albums, 'I Dreamed a Dream' 'The Gift' and 'Someone To Watch Over Me' have sold over 18 million copies and stormed to the top of the charts in over 30 countries.

Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs From The Stage

Tracklist
1. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
2. The Winner Takes It All
3. Send In The Clowns
4. The Music Of The Night featuring Michael Crawford
5. Bring Him Home
6. Memory
7. As Long As He Needs Me
8. All I Ask Of You featuring Donny Osmond
9. Out Here On My Own
10. You'll Never Walk Alone
11. This Is The Moment featuring Donny Osmond

http://www.music-news.com/shownews.asp?H=Susan-Boyle-new-album-tracklisting&nItemID=57880

graysea

Susan Boyle to Duet with Michael Crawford and Donny Osmond on New Show Tunes Album Standing Ovation

NEWS By Marc Snetiker October 4, 2012 - 11:43AM

Susan Boyle

Susan Boyle's fourth studio album will feature musical theater standards.

After Les Miserables helped launch her career, Susan Boyle is using her love of musical theater as the inspiration for her upcoming album. Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs from the Stage, Boyle's fourth studio album, will be released on November 19 in the U.K. and feature a host of musical theater standards from Boyle’s favorite shows.

The Phantom of the Opera icon Michael Crawford and Donny Osmond will lend their voices to the album, which will feature the following track list:

1. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (from The Wizard of Oz)
2. “The Winner Takes It All” (from Mamma Mia!)
3. “Send in the Clowns” (from A Little Night Music)
4. “The Music of the Night” featuring Michael Crawford (from The Phantom of the Opera)
5. “Bring Him Home” (from Les Miserables)
6. “Memory” (from Cats)
7. “As Long As He Needs Me” (from Oliver!)
8. “All I Ask of You” featuring Donny Osmond (from The Phantom of the Opera)
9. “Out Here On My Own” (from Fame)
10. “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (from Carousel)
11. “This is the Moment” featuring Donny Osmond (from Jekyll & Hyde)

Boyle rose to fame after a life-changing appearance on the British reality show Britain’s Got Talent, where she wowed judges (and audiences) with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream.” Three years later, Boyle has released three best-selling albums and is even the subject of her own musical: I Dreamed a Dream. The bio-musical, based on her memoir, toured the U.K. through June 2012.

Watch Boyle perform the Les Miz anthem during her Britain's Got Talent finale below!

Go to link for video.

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/164486/susan-boyle-to-duet-with-michael-crawford-and-donny-osmond-on-new-show-tunes-album-standing-ovation/

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