Susan Boyle Headlines Guest Lineup for Trinity Broadcasting Network Special, Sunday Evening June 22nd

graysea

6 hours ago

LOS ANGELES, June 19, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- It's a very special Sunday evening edition of Trinity Broadcasting Network's Praise the Lord music and talk show, as hosts Matthew and Laurie Crouch welcome Britain's Got Talent singing sensation Susan Boyle, Flip It Forward real estate renovation experts David and Jason Benham, and popular speaker and author Tullian Tchividjian.

In 2009 Susan Boyle, a 47-year-old single woman from a small village in Scotland, inspired the world when she stepped onto the Britain's Got Talent stage and told an incredulous Simon Cowell that she wanted to become a professional singer. The audience snickered, Cowell and his panel of judges rolled their eyes, but the ridicule turned to tears and deafening cheers when Ms. Boyle blew everyone away with an unforgettable rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables (Click Here to see that moving performance and Ms. Boyle's discovery). Since then Susan Boyle has traveled the world to rave reviews as enthusiastic fans have purchased more than twenty million copies of her gold and platinum albums. Ms. Boyle will share her amazing story and faith, along with her beautiful voice.

Real estate experts David and Jason Benham may be most famous as the hosts of a home renovation reality show, slated to debut on a national cable network, that was canceled before it ever got on the air. The twin brothers were well into production for their much anticipated show Flip It Forward, that had them helping families create their dream homes from fixer-uppers, when complaints about their Christian witness and stand on moral values hit the Internet and social media, prompting the network to abruptly drop the program. The brothers will share their story of growing up as the sons of a well-known Christian leader, and the secret to standing firm in faith when the culture demands compromise.

TBN will also welcome pastor, author, and popular speaker Tullian Tchividjian, grandson of beloved evangelist Dr. Billy Graham and pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Hailed as part of "the face of a new generation of Christian leadership in America," Pastor Tchividjian will bring TBN's global audience a message of hope and encouragement.

Tune in Sunday evening, June 22nd, at 7 p.m. Pacific Time (9 p.m. Central, 10 p.m. Eastern), as hosts Matthew and Laurie Crouch welcome guests Susan Boyle, David and Jason Benham, and Pastor Tullian Tchividjian for an extra-special edition of the award-winning Praise the Lord music and talk show, airing exclusively on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

About the Trinity Broadcasting Family of Networks

With 28 networks and growing worldwide, the Trinity Broadcasting Family of Networks is the world's largest faith-and-family television group, airing a broad range of church and ministry programming, Christian music, family friendly movies, children's programming, and shows for teens and young adults 24 hours a day to every inhabited continent via 87 satellites and 20,000 television and cable affiliates. In addition, TBN's most popular global networks are available on computers, smart phones, and other mobile devices, and over 24,000 hours of entertaining and inspiring On-Demand programming is accessible via TBN's innovative online network, iTBN.org . To find out more about the Trinity Broadcasting Family of Networks, log on to www.tbn.org .

Media Contact
Colby May, E-Mail: cmay@tbn.org; Tel: 972-313-9500

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140404/DC98465LOGO

SOURCE Trinity Broadcasting Network

Article link:

http://news.yahoo.com/susan-boyle-headlines-guest-lineup-trinity-broadcasting-network-150000197.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

graysea

Thank you for sharing your wonderful posters, Mauro!

Mauro Ceci

Susan Boyle in concert Tickets: 3rd Nov - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Broward Center for the Performing Arts http://www.ticketmaster.com/susan-boyle-ft-lauderdale-florida-11-03-2014/event/0D004CC676395CD4?camefrom=AEGLIVE_TSBOYADK060614WE3001

Thank you for sharing your wonderful posters, Mauro!

graysea

Tanya Verbanec added a new photo to the album SB - U.S. Tour.

8 hrs ·

Fans found this advertising sign at the theater.

Thank you for sharing your find at the theater.

graysea

SusanBoyle Fansinternationalinc

19 hours ago · Edited

"Susan Boyle came to see 'Hello Dolly' tonight! Show went so well! So proud of everyone! 2 down 2 to go! #hellodolly #subo"

Posted on Instagram today. Photo was taken at the Broxburn Academy in Broxburn, West Lothian, Scotland.

http://instagram.com/p/pXEtUKgb4F/

Photo: "Susan Boyle came to see 'Hello Dolly' tonight! Show went so well! So proud of everyone! 2 down 2 to go! #hellodolly #subo"

Posted on Instagram today. Photo was taken at the Broxburn Academy in Broxburn, West Lothian, Scotland.

http://instagram.com/p/pXEtUKgb4F/

Another nice picture.

graysea

Judging panel is formed by two supremos!

Photographer-Ian Georgeson Susan Boyle has been announced as a judge at competition.

by John A. MacInnes
john.macinnes@jpress.co.uk

Organisers of the West Lothian Schools Has Talent competition have scored a coup, arranging for Blackburn’s own Susan Boyle to sit on the judging panel.

The annual competition, which this year takes place on Friday, June 20, in the Marches marquee at the rugby club will see every school in West Lothian competing for the coveted title and an amazing prize - a trip to Texas!

The Grapevine West Lothian Twinning Committee, which has organised the talent show in a similar format to the programme which launched Ms Boyle to stardom, ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, is delighted to have secured her services.

This year’s winners will accompany the twinning committee on its annual visit to the USA.

The talent show will see Linlithgow Academy band, ‘Long Way Home’ competing for the top spot.

The band, which comprises 15-year-olds Andrew Campbell and Gregor McAdam with Mary Nicol and Eve Dalgety, who are both 14, recently appeared in the Battle of the Bands competition in Bathgate, where they made it through to the finals, to be held on June 17.

Their chosen composition, ‘Fall’, a song penned by the group members, will see lead guitarist Andrew play with a broken arm necessitating him attempting to play his guitar upside down.

There’s nothing like ‘the show must go on’!

West Lothian Council’s Provost and twinning committee member Tom Kerr said: “I am delighted that we have managed to secure the services of Susan to help judge this competition.

“She is an extremely busy lady and for her to give up her time to come out on a Friday evening is something we appreciate.

“I’m sure the competitors will be spurred on to give it their best shot in front of such a huge celebrity.”

The West Lothian Grapevine Twinning Association was established in 2008 to foster friendship, and hospitality between West Lothian and the city of Grapevine in Texas.

The competition starts at 7pm, but the audience are asked to be seated by 6.30pm.

Tickets, priced £7 each for adults and £3 for anyone under 16 are available at Far from the Madding Crowd bookshop, High Street, Linlithgow. Tel 01506 845509 or email: jill@maddingcrowdlinlithgow.co.uk

For article, click link:
http://www.linlithgowgazette.co.uk/news/judging-panel-is-formed-by-two-supremos-1-3443123

graysea

NEW PAGE ON THE BLOG.

Susan's Choices/Charity thread...

her charity contributions, work and activities.

My appreciation to Canadian Bill and the SBFII site for sharing the wonderful and informative "Choices and Charity" posters, articles and etc... All the information and more can be found on the SBFII (http://susan-boyle.com/) fan site. Thanks for sharing.

In the years since Britain's Got Talent in 2009, Susan has spent an impressive amount of time 'giving back'. Following is a look at events Susan has chosen to be involved in one way or another in the short time since she's become famous. These are of course, only the times when Susan's name, face

and/or presence is involved and she must necessarily 'make news' to help a cause. What she does privately we will never know, which is how she prefers it.

Please click on page (above in black area) to read all about Susan's charity choices.

Thank you Canadian Bill for accumulating and creating the wonderful informative posters.

graysea · Jun 15, 2014 14:25

Video: Susan Boyle talks touring America and her love for local heroes as she boards the Pride of Britain bus

SCOTTISH superstar Susan Boyle revealed her accent causes a lot of problems for American TV audiences, her love of US shops and her Pride of Britain nominees.

SUSAN Boyle reckons she'll have to slow down her Scottish accent when she tours America so people can understand her.

The singer has appeared in many shows in the US but admitted she was working on some new skills as she geared up for her big Stateside tour.

She said: "I've been slowing down my talking. After being on Oprah Winfrey and receiving subtitles I think I'm going to have to slow down my accent. I'm doing promo for the October tour there next week. I'm very excited, really looking forward to it and it's whole brand new adventure."

Susan, who had decked her house in flags and was all dressed up for a family gala day in her hometown of Blackburn yesterday, also admitted she couldn't wait to hit the streets of the US to go shopping.

She said: "I'm looking forward to going shopping, especially in America, cause they gave great stuff. I went mad the last time, got a whole load of frocks and everything."

And she joked: "I might not want to come home. I might just decide to stay there. I love the two of them Scotland and America - they are so friendly there."

Before the gala day, Susan stepped on board the Pride of Britain bus which made its way from down south to her house before heading into Glasgow for its final stop.

She says of the awards event run by our sister paper The Mirror: "I was once a guest of The Pride Of Britain way back in 2010 and was privileged to meet people like HRH Prince Charles and Camilla and think its a very worthwhile cause and people should nominate."

Susan also nominated two local heroes who she thinks deserve an award for all the work they have done.

"On a local basis in Blackburn there are two people who stand out above everyone else. There's Mrs Mackenna who did the special Olympics and Mr Smith round the road who helps everybody despite having problems himself. They stand out and in my opinion should get an award.

"Just go for it. It's fun and worthwhile and the more nominees they get the better."

As she got behind the wheel of the specially decorated bus she admitted: "I can't remember the last time I went on a bus. It's been so long. Probably a couple of years now. I used to sneak on"

Sitting in the drivers seat she joked: "See the power you have it's brilliant.

To see article, click on link below:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/video-susan-boyle-talks-touring-3692772

graysea

graysea

‏@PrideOfBritain

@SusanBoyleHQ welcomed the Pride of Britain Tour to her home today & we had to say "nice decorations Subo!" #PoB2014 pic.twitter.com/NWEiYTBJuj

graysea

Moira Mcgeorge. Thank you, Moira for sharing these lovely pictures.

25 mins ·

Had a lovely time at the Blackburn Gala day. Susan Boyle looked really great in her cream and black outfit and she was gracious enough to talk with us and even posed for photos. Lovely lovely lady.

Thank you for sharing these lovely Gala Day pictures.

graysea

Susan Boyle in USA Concert Tour 2014

"My Heroine Susan Boyle in Concert in America

October n November 2014!"

Message from Marie Ursula, read below:

Susan Boyle is also my heroine! Susan will be coming to America to perform in 21 concerts halls (listed below) during October and November, 2014. Many fans will be attending a number of concerts and have already booked. Now they are busy planning Meet and Greets for the occasion. We wouldn't want you to miss hearing and seeing this fantastic singer in a theater near you. By all means, as Marie said, please forward Marie's message to all. Thank you.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marie Ursula's message:

So I just sent this email to almost everyone in my personal email address book. It's one way to publicize Susan's concert tour.

Feel free to plagiarize if you decide to send this to everyone in YOUR personal email address book. Be sure to send to only small chunks of email addresses at a time so you're less likely to end up in a spam folder. You'll notice that I included Susan's official May 28 email at the bottom. If you don't have that handy, you can improvise.

The email:

My Heroine Susan Boyle in Concert in America October n November 2014!

Dear family and friends ~

Here are the dates, states, and cities (see more details from Susan’s official email at the bottom of my email):

October 8–16: California (San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose, Costa Mesa)
October 17: Arizona (Phoenix)
October 19–21: Texas (Midland, Fort Worth, San Antonio)
October 23: Missouri (Kansas City)
October 24: Kentucky (Louisville)
October 26: Georgia (Atlanta)
October 27: South Carolina (Greenville)
October 29: North Carolina (Durham)
October 30: South Carolina (North Charleston)
November 1–6: Florida (Clearwater, Melbourne, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, Jacksonville)

Ticket sales have begun.

Many of you know that I’ve been a fan and supporter of Scottish songbird Susan Boyle since April 2009, when her Britain’s Got Talent audition aired on April 11 in the UK and then went viral worldwide on YouTube, breaking all existing YouTube records in a matter of days. Here’s one of many postings of this famous video:

http://www.susan-boyle.com/video/Sus...ag%3A%22bgt%22

With the help of an excellent team, Susan has been taking “baby steps” (her words) during these past five years, doing many remarkable things. Last December, she revealed to the world that she has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, which makes her determination and accomplishments even more inspiring. That’s one reason she’s one of my heroines.

You might not know that this wee shy woman, now 53, gets (or used to get) terrible stage fright, so she hasn’t been ready for a full-length concert tour. Last year she performed her first actual concert tour in Scotland as a test run; this year, she toured England and Wales. The venues (holding about 2,000-3,000) were packed, audiences were thrilled, and Susan is excited to take this next step in fulfilling her dream “to be a professional singer” in order to “make people happy.”

I was blessed to be able to attend two of her concerts this April in England. I can tell you, they were well worth the airfare and tickets. During the first 20-plus-song concert, even during the serious songs, I beamed with pride and joy for her. During the second concert, I got more into the moods of the songs.

The image that came to mind constantly during these concerts was of a volcano . . . serene until one day . . . . Here’s this wee shy woman who has some difficulty expressing her emotions in spoken words. Yet when she sings, all the fiery passion and pathos inside of her rolls out like molten lava, sometimes powerfully, sometimes tenderly, in fluid, rounded, expressive notes.

Here’s a short promotional YouTube clip that happened to be filmed during one of the concerts I attended:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKfpyKmdOsg

Here’s the best source of reliable information about ticket sales (this is Susan’s official site; beware of scalpers offering way-overpriced tickets on any number of websites):

http://www.susanboylemusic.com/us

Here’s the unofficial fan-owned-and-operated non-profit volunteer website that I’ve been a member of since the beginning in April 2009:

http://www.susan-boyle.com/

This site includes a forum in which many fans and supporters from around the world participate, providing an incredible amount of volunteer support and encouragement for Susan and her career. Through this site and others, many beautiful in-person international friendships with wonderful people have also been formed. Susan and her team know our forum well. Anyone can join, and it’s free:

http://susan-boyle.com/

I plan to attend a few of the California concerts, God willing. It would be great to see you there.

Peace and joy,
Sister Marie Ursula
Sister Marie Sheahan Brown
Sister Bear Brown

P.S. Please feel free to forward to friends and relatives.

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