TRUE FOR SUSAN BOYLE
Susan Boyle with Donny Osmond
Sunday December 23,2012
By Terry Staunton
LIKE most girls in the Seventies, Susan Boyle had her share of pop star crushes. There was one teen idol, however, who brought out her inner rebel and landed her in hot water with her parents.
The shy 51-year-old who became a worldwide sensation when she appeared on Britain’s Got Talent in 2008 had lost her heart to Donny Osmond. “His pictures were all over my bedroom
walls, the place was plastered,” she says.
walls, the place was plastered,” she says.
“I would cut photographs out of Jackie magazine, anything I could get my hands on. Everything in the room was purple: wallpaper, curtains, bed clothes, because it was Donny’s favourite colour. He used to wear a purple velvet cap so I had to have one as well.”
clothes, because it was Donny’s favourite colour. He used to wear a purple velvet cap so I had to have one as well.”
In her London hotel room, Susan chuckles warmly as she thinks about her younger self. She is a picture of sophistication in a smart black suit, but a mischievous grin spreads across her face when asked if she saw Donny in concert. “I sneaked off school to see The Osmonds in Glasgow, me and a couple of pals,” she says, almost whispering.
“Our parents didn’t know where the heck we were and I landed myself in a wee bit of trouble. It was worth it, though. It was a bit noisy, to say the least, everyone was in a frenzy. You could hear the singing a wee bit but mostly it was us girls screaming. That was all part of the experience, though, you felt like you were part of the show.”
Earlier this year, Susan really was part of the show when she joined her idol on stage in Las Vegas. Her appearance followed Donny’s participation in her new album Standing Ovation on which they share two duets. Not bad for a girl from the small West Lothian town of Blackburn who once glued his snaps to her wall.
“Oh, what a laugh it was in the studio! Donny’s got an outrageous sense of humour. At one point he asked the engineer to play the backing track really, really slow without telling me and he sang along in a sort of deep slow-motion voice as if everything was normal. He really put me at ease. I think we have very good chemistry.”
While success came late to Susan, who was catapulted to fame in her 40s, Donny has lived his entire life in the spotlight, first singing with his brothers on television when he was five, most notably on Andy Williams’s variety show.
“I have learned how to be calm and how to present myself, which I have had to do really quickly, but Donny helped me a lot as well,” says Susan.
“He shared his experiences with me, telling me how he coped with the pressure of being in the public eye. He understood what I had gone through because he had gone through it himself.
“The Vegas show was really special, I was on cloud nine. When you are 13 years old and you have got a crush on a pop star from the other side of the world, you never think you are going to meet them. It was never even a dream, the whole idea was too far-fetched to think about.
“He was my original pop star crush; the first record I bought was Puppy Love. I quite liked David Cassidy as well, even though he was the big rival. I used to watch him in The PartridgeFamily on TV but I didn’t love him as much as Donny.”
on TV but I didn’t love him as much as Donny.”
American pretty boys are all very well but didn’t homegrown Scottish heroes the Bay City Rollers make an impact in the Boyle household? Susan wrinkles her nose as if she has just smelled something rotten.
“Nah, they weren’t for me. I remember people getting chucked out of school for wearing the silly trousers. They turned tartan into a novelty, rather than being something historical that represented a clan.
“I don’t think my parents would have stood for me dressing up like a Roller, there is a line you just do not cross.”
It has been four years since Susan’s extraordinary success on Britain’s Got Talent, after which her life changed for ever, to the point where the wheels started to come off. The day after the show’s final, where she was beaten into second place by dance troupe Diversity, she checked in to The Priory psychiatric clinic.
The 2012 Susan, however, shows few signs of nerves and appears to be calling the shots in terms of her career. “I am a lot less nervous than I used to be,” she says. “I would be telling a lie if I said I was not overwhelmed by it all when it first started but it sits fairly comfortably on my shoulders now. I have had long enough to get used to it and get enjoyment from it.
I would cut photographs out of Jackie magazine, anything I could get my hands on
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Susan Boyle
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“When I entered Britain’s Got Talent I honestly didn’t realise what I was letting myself in for. I didn’t expect things to happen so fast but you learn as you go along and sometimes you have to learn pretty fast.
“It wasn’t so much the success itself, it was the speed at which the success came. Luckily, I have managed to take control of my career and everything is going along at a more manageable pace now.”
She plans to tour next year but it won’t be a lengthy jaunt across the globe. Susan still lives in the same house in small-town Scotland and is determined to go back to it as often as possible.
SUSAN adds: “I don’t think success has changed me that much. I like to stay grounded and want to see my family and friends in Blackburn whenever I can. I was in New York last week, flew back to London for a TV show and then I had 24 hours off so I just went home and put my feet up.”
How did she spend her day off back in familiar surroundings? “I watched Singin’ In The Rain on DVD, which is what I would do on any Sunday afternoon before all this happened to me. You cannae beat it, you know.”
Standing Ovation is out now on Syco Music.
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/366763/Donny-Osmond-makes-dreams-come-true-for-Susan-Boyle
