A Christmas Candle’: A meditation on faith and works

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Lakewood Church Performance

Houston, Texas

Nov. 17, 2013

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Diane Cawley

about an hour ago via iOS

Susan's interview in Woman's magazine

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SusanBoyle Fansinternationalinc

4 hours ago · Edited

"@**** look who I bumped into @stobocastle#susanboyle "
Posted on twitter today.

graysea · Nov 23, 2013

A Christmas Candle’: A meditation on faith and works

Nov 23, 2013

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Lesley Manville and Sylvester McCoy star in a scene from the EchoLight Studios production “The Christmas Candle.” This past June, Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and a 2012 presidential candidate, became CEO of the Dallas-based production studio whose mission is to develop faith-based films. (CNS photo/EchoLight Studios)

Sure, department stores are putting up decorations and the radio might be playing the right music, but the best way to get into the Christmas spirit might well be to wander into a movie theater. “A Christmas Candle” (EchoLight Studios) is playing throughout the Valley and is well worth the price of admission for the whole family.

The film is based on best selling Protestant author Max Lucado’s book of the same name and, in many ways, is a meditation on the relationship between faith and works. The film recounts the story of David Richmond (Hans Matheson), a young minister who has been serving the poor in London in 1890. After some encouraging, he leaves this work to begin serving a Victorian town on the English countryside. His sermons question many of the town’s traditions and challenge the villagers to put their faith into action.

One particular tradition — that of the Christmas Candle — is the focal point of the film. According to legend, an angel visits the village candlemaker every 25 years and touches a single candle. Whoever lights this candle receives a miracle on Christmas Eve. Richmond questions this tradition, too, and nearly snuffs out Christmas.

In the end, God is glorified by faith and works, as the villagers learn that by loving their neighbor they can cooperate in God’s miraculous work.

The message is more important that the story, so the plot suffers a bit from that. Some of the dilemmas seem somewhat contrived. There is a predictable, but sweet romance between Richmond and Emily Barstow (Samantha Barks). Susan Boyle, the singing sensation from “Britain’s Got Talent,” makes her film debut. They all deliver strong performances.

It’s also worth noting that Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and 2012 presidential candidate, is the CEO of EchoLight Studios.

“Rather than cursing the darkness, we need to get out there and start shining some light,” Santorum said in an interview with Catholic News Service.

“A Christmas Candle” certainly does that.

inShare1

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Scottish Music Awards: Susan Boyle fans’ favourite

Susan Boyle was named Scotland's favourite musical act at the awards ceremony. Picture: Jane Barlow

by BRIAN FERGUSON

SUSAN Boyle has beaten fellow singer Emeli Sande to be named Scotland’s favourite musical act at the industry’s annual Oscars-style ceremony in Glasgow.

Superstar DJ Calvin Harris, indie rockers Biffy Clyro and Sharleen Spiteri’s reunited band Texas also lost out to the 52-year-old, who has sold almost 20 million albums worldwide since shooting to fame just four years ago.

The award for Boyle has come only weeks after it emerged that the singer, who has already been the subject of a stage musical, is in talks over a film about her life.

Her surprise victory at the 15th annual Scottish Music Awards - also known as the Tartan Clefs - came after several weeks of public voting.

The “fans choice” award was a new addition for the event, the biggest in the music industry calendar north of the border, which also acts as the main fundraiser for the leading music therapy charity Nordoff-Robbins Scotland.

Boyle has now joined the likes of Annie Lennox, Simple Mind, Paolo Nutini, Franz Ferdinand, Wet Wet Wet and Deacon Blue as Tartan Clef winners.

Boyle, who has just released her first Christmas album, including a festive duet digitally recorded with Elvis Presley, and is about to make her feature film debut, was honoured along with the likes of Garbage singer Shirley Manson.

The 47 year-old rock icon received the prestigious outstanding achievement award for innovation in music, and rock outfit Mogwai, who are currently celebrating their 20th anniversary, and were named live act of the year.

Manson said: “It’s amazing coming back home to get this.

“To be awarded something here means more to me than anything. It’s where I was born and brought up, and where I learnt everything about music. My whole musical life is here. To be recognised by my country is profoundly moving.

“I really want to give a shout out to all my fellow musicians in Scotland. We enjoy an incredible wealth of talent, we have incredible infrastructure and we produce some incredible musicians. This ceremony is really helpful in bringing young Scottish talent to an international audience.

“I would like to thank my old music teacher at Broughton High School in Edinburgh, who really fired up my imagination and introduced me to a recording studio. I always think about her when I think about who formed my musical talent.

“She was a really inspiring person in my life, who introduced to a lot of different types of music, she taught me about composition and lyrics.

“We recorded cover versions of Fleetwod Mac at the age of 14 - we were so lucky. I feel we got an incredible education and we got it for free, it was amazing.

“Creativity and art sometimes speaks to unreachable people, and it is really important.”

Glasgow-born songwriter John McLaughlin, who has written hits for acts as varied as Shane MacGowan, Mark Owen, Westlife, Lulu, Billie Piper and Echo & The Bunnymen, received the “living legend” award.

McLaughlin, who was brought up in the Milton area of Glasgow, boasts three number one singles and no fewer than 17 top 10 hits. The 48-year-old was also a songwriting coach on the BBC’s Fame Academy programme.

He said: “I must admit I was flabbergasted to heard about the award, to be honest.

“Although I think I’m far too young to be a legend, I’m unbelievably humbled about this, especially as the event is in Glasgow, it’s in front of my peers and I adore Nordoff-Robbins. Music certainly changed my life and I can see how it changes the lives of others.

“The award’s made me think about all of the things I’ve managed to do over the years, from starting out in punk rock bands, to writing my first pop songs with Gordon Goudie in a flat in Partick when I was 23. I’ve never really thought about that properly until now.

“The highlight would have to be having three number one hits, with Sandi Thom, Westlife and Busted. I never really dreamed of having number one records. I’m fiercely proud of them.”

Indie darlings Camera Obscura, Twin Atlantic and Admiral Fallow were all recognised at the lavish event, which was held at the Old Fruitmarket building.

The awards saw Edinburgh-born Manson reunite with former bandmate Martin Metcalfe, from her much-loved first rock group Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, for a special live performance.

Another recently-reunited 1980s Scottish band, Gun, also played before the 500-strong audience, along with Nina Nesbitt, one of the headline acts at this year’s Edinburgh Hogmanay party.

The 19-year-old, who first came to prominence with YouTube recordings from her bedroom, was named emerging artist of the year. Now she will be supporting the Pet Shop Boys when they appear in Princes Street Gardens on Hogmanay.

Nesbitt, who attended last year’s awards as a guest, has had a dramatic rise to prominence in the last 12 months, even making an appearance on the pitch at Hampden to sing “Flower of Scotland”.

Nesbitt, who performed at the awards just hours after flying in from New York, said: “I was just in the audience here last year, but I was really keen to find out more about the charity and actually ended up doing a music therapy session with about 10 kids earlier this year at the Royal Blind School in Edinburgh.

“A lot of them don’t have many ways of communicating - they only way they can really communicate is through music, so it was really special experience.

“I’m really excited about playing in Edinburgh on Hogmanay. It’s a gig I’ve always wanted to do, so it should be pretty cool. I don’t actually know the Pet Shop Boys’ music at all, but my parents are really keen on them. Another of the bands that is playing, The 1975, are one of my favourite new acts at the moment.”

Glasgow band Twin Atlantic, one of Scotland’s most popular festival acts, won the breakthrough award, while Admiral Fallow’s special recognition award was for the impact they had made overseas in the last 12 months.

Philip Hague, drummer with Admiral Fallow, said: “It’s been really busy for us. We’re only just back from a tour of Australia a few days ago, we’ve been in the US and around Europe.

“We won’t be doing too much touring next year, it’s a bit of a writing year for us ahead of our next album, although we have some interesting projects on the go, including a special event back here at the Old Fruitmarket for the Glasgow Film Festival, which we’re writing new music for.

“Hopefully we’ll be doing something around the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, as there is a lot of music stuff happening.”

Nordoff-Robbins Scotland, the only charity of its kind in Scotland, provides around 9000 therapy sessions a year for both children and adults who have autistic spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, mental health problems, life limiting illnesses and dementia.

These are run by the charity - which needs to raise around £500,000 each year to operate - in schools, hospitals, hospices, care homes and in four of its own dedicated clinics in West Lothian, Glasgow, Fife and Dundee.

Music promoter Donald MacLeod, chairman of Nordoff-Robbins Scotland, said: “The Scottish Music Awards are a very special date in the calendar.

“They demonstrate the unique power of music and the huge community spirit and strength within the Scottish music industry.

The work of Nordoff-Robbins Scotland provides respite through music to both children and adults with learning disabilities and we are hugely grateful to all who have attended tonight and those who have made donations to the charity.

“Every penny raised really does make a massive difference in delivering the charity’s mission statement each year.”

Carolyne Nurse, fundraising director of Nordoff-Robbins Music Scotland, said: “The Scottish Music awards are the single biggest source of funding for the Scottish charity so it’s hugely humbling to have the backing of some of the biggest names in Scottish music supporting our work.”

City council leader Gordon Matheson, who is also chair of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, one of the event’s backers, said: “For more than a decade the Scottish Music Awards have played an important role in celebrating both Glasgow and Scotland’s rich and diverse musical heritage.

“Indeed, hosting Scotland’s national music awards further reinforces Glasgow’s cutting-edge style credentials and its reputation as not just Scotland’s leading music city, but also as a UNESCO City of Music.

“However, the Scottish Music Awards are about more than just music. They are intrinsic to raising much needed funds for, and recognising the work of, the truly inspirational Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy in Scotland charity and its people.”

Full list of Scottish Music Awards winners

New Boss Award - Rose Moon (Adele’s co-manager)

People Make Glasgow Special Recognition Award - Admiral Fallow

Songwriting Award - Camera Obscura

Best Breakthrough Act - Twin Atlantic

Best Emerging Artist - Nina Nesbitt

Living Legend Award - John McLaughlin (songwriter)

Best Live Act - Mogwai

Fans Choice Award - Susan Boyle

Innovation Award - Shirley Manson

http://www.scotsman.com/what-s-on/music/scottish-music-awards-susan-boyle-fans-favourite-1-3201063

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Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle blasts David Cameron over “put a jumper on” remark, saying, “I was shocked and appalled!”

November 24th, 2013 by Lynn Connolly.

Away an bile yer heid ya numpty! Ye dinnae ken whit yer talkin aboot!

There was a rip roaring cheer for Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle in my house today – which given I’m the only one here was frankly a bit embarrassing as my neighbours heard it – when I read a report that she’d blasted Prime Minister David Cameron for saying that anyone battling the cold this winter should “put a jumper on” rather than their expensive heating.
An outraged Susan, who of course lived a modest existence in a council flat before finding fame and fortune on BGT, said, “I was shocked and appalled by those comments. They were so wrong. It isn’t fair to good, honest people…

“I found it inconceivable that the man running the country — who should be looking out and protecting the people of the UK — would turn around and tell the nation to wear a jumper when the energy companies announced vast price rises.”
To The Sun, Susan added, “Why don’t you bring these people to task and bring the costs down? What do you mean, wear a jumper?
“These people can’t afford to feed their children.
“Electricity companies are making hundreds of millions of pounds in profit.”

She continued, “Before winning Britain’s Got Talent, I was sitting in my council flat without any gas or electricity over winter.
“I couldn’t afford the basics. Money was too tight and the bills too big. It was a case of either eat or heat.”
And of people who are facing that same dilemma this winter, Susan remarked, “I see it myself. There’s a neighbour across the road really struggling.
“I’m very aware of the impact. I still see people forced to go without.
“Right here in the UK, more and more people by the day are falling into debt.
“They can’t afford to feed their children — they are skipping meals so their children can eat.
“These are hardworking people going out day by day and working their backsides off but who still can’t afford the cost of living.
“These aren’t people on benefits, they are hardworking people who can’t make ends meet.”

As mentioned above, I for one entirely agree with Susan’s scathing condemnation of the out-of-touch Prime Minister and his ludicrous comments…
And as I reported yesterday, I felt much the same way over what MP Michael Gove had had to say regarding Simon Cowell. You can click hereto read that.
However, on a lighter note, it’s been reported by the Mirror that – bless her – diabetic Susan has had to stop making secret trips to the shops for her favourite sweets.
A source close to the star said, “She was making the odd secret trip to the shops…

“A few sweet wrappers were found lying about the house and that gave her away. But now she is very much following doctor’s orders and has cut the sweets out.
“At the moment she is able to control the condition with tablets. But friends have warned her if she doesn’t stop eating sweets and chocolate, she will have to start injecting herself with insulin.
“That’s the last thing she and those around her want. Being fit and healthy is really important for Susan.”
Aww.
Here’s a look at the trailer for Susan’s debut film, The Christmas Candle…

Related: Britian's Got Talent 2013, Susan Boyle

http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/britains-got-talent/britains-got-talent-star-susan-boyle-blasts-david-cameron-over-put-a-jumper-on-remark-saying-i-was-shocked-and-appalled/

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Susan Boyle

Like This Page · 31 minutes ago

ONLY 2 DAYS. Christmas is definitely coming early this year. Pre-order 'Home For Christmas' today and be the first to receive it when it is released on Monday!#HomeForChristmas

Susan Boyle

Like This Page · 7 hours ago

Susan's written a lovely piece for the Huffington Post this week. Perfect weekend reading...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/susan-boyle/susan-boyle-paying-it-forw

Susan Boyle

Like This Page · 23 hours ago

Just three days to go until Home For Christmas is released in the UK!
#HomeForChristmas

http://smarturl.it/HomeForXmas

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Click link below for video of movie:
CBN TV - 'Christmas Candle' to Become New 'Holiday Classic'

Below article by Unreality ; http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/britains-got-talent/britains-got-talent-star-susan-boyle-says-film-christmas-candle-captures-essence-christmas-beautifull

Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle says of her film The Christmas Candle, “It captures the essence of Christmas so beautifully”

November 23rd, 2013 by Lynn Connolly.

Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle is now almost unrecognisable as the slightly eccentric and image-challenged lady that we met when she blew everyone away with her first audition for the hit show in 2009…
Since then, Susan has undergone a transformation in almost every regard, from her physical appearance to shunning the crippling shyness that dogged her early post-BGT career, and she has of course gone on to become a film

But it was about her forthcoming film debut in festive flick The Christmas Candle that Susan spoke to the Daily Record this week, branding it an “inspiring” movie that “captures the essence of Christmas so beautifully.”
First, she said, “I really loved the story because it was so simple and heartfelt and it appealed to me because it captures the essence of Christmas so beautifully.
“It’s all about the magic of Christmas and the Christmas message. The story is inspiring as it tells us never to give up on our dreams and to always believe in miracles – look what happened to me.”

She added, “I hadn’t planned to take up acting but when this came my way it was something that I wanted to take part in because…
“Well, my life for the past four years has been about trying new things and this was a great first acting experience.
“I was honoured to have been asked. I really enjoyed being on set and working with the amazing actors.
“It was fascinating and inspiring to see what they do up close and what happens behind the scenes on films and the incredible teamwork.
“They all offered me so much support and were so kind.”

james cosmo, susan boyle, the christmas candle

In the film, Susan plays the role of Eleanor Hopewell, who’s married to Herbert, a role played by screen icon James Cosmo.
Of working with him, Susan said, “Working with James Cosmo as my on-screen husband was fantastic.
“I admire him as an actor and he’s a fellow Scot. It really was amazing.”
Meanwhile, James said of Susan, “It was great fun. She’s an absolute sweetheart.
“I obviously knew who Subo, as I call her, was, so I was looking forward to meeting her…

“We come from the same sort of background and area so we got on really well. She’s used to big challenges and she’s taken another big leap.
“It’s very brave, what she’s done and she’s done a great job.”
The paper’s article goes on to say, “The filmmakers added a scene to showcase her incredible singing voice on the song There Are Miracles All Around.”
Of that Susan remarked, “The song that I sing in the film is very moving and beautiful.
“It encapsulates the beauty of the film and the story perfectly.”

The Christmas Candle previews on December 8 at VUE Cinemas and is to be released nationwide from December 13.
I can’t wait to see it – will you be going to watch it?
For now, here’s the film’s trailer…

Related: Britain's Got Talent 2013, Susan Boyle

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