Susan Boyle Read Free Page A

clearly overwhelmed Susan could say, but it was a lot more than that. It was an extraordinary achievement from a woman no one would ever have dreamed could become a star.
    Simon Cowell, the ringmaster of this particular circus, bobbed up again. ‘I’m incredibly proud of Susan and delighted for her,’ he said. ‘This success couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. Susan Boyle quite simply has broken the rules, her story is like a Hollywood movie, but this time it’s real life and a really talented, nice lady who has won.’
    It was the culmination of an extraordinary month, even by Susan’s standards, and a mark of just how far she’d come. Elaine Paige wasn’t the half of it: Susan had her sights set on even greater matters. Just a few weeks earlier, Susan, a devout Catholic, had expressed a wish to sing for Pope Benedict XVI: ‘Apart from being a singer and being accepted by people and bringing them happiness, my biggest dream is to meet His Holiness the Pope,’ she’d explained. ‘I would love to sing “Panis Angelicus” for him. Religion is the backbone of my life; it has given me strength to go forward, in particular when my mother died.’ It was an ambition that would have seemed unlikely a few months earlier, but now anything was possible. She’d already met one of her idols, Donny Osmond - ‘It was a dream come true. He was lovely’ - at his mansion in LA; was there anything Susan would not be able to do?
    In the run-up to her trip to New York, two other people who were staggered by what was going on were Ant and Dec. The Geordie duo were the presenters of Britain’s Got Talent , and while they weren’t as closely linked with Susan as Simon Cowell, they were seasoned players in the entertainment world and had been utterly shocked by the media frenzy SuBo had whipped up. Far from having a non-stop route to the top, Ant and Dec had suffered plenty of setbacks along the way, so they knew from experience how tough the showbiz world can be. They had hosted Britain’s Got Talent from the outset, and if anyone had their finger on the audience’s pulse, both within the studio and in the country at large, it was those two, and they professed themselves to be amazed.
    ‘I have to say, even watching her performance then, the audience were great. The judges were kind of surprised,’ said Ant. ‘We thought, That’s a nice story. I never anticipated it being as big as it would be. Never in a million years. She was really nice and a bit nervous and we didn’t expect anything much of her. Then she brought the house down.’
    Dec agreed. ‘We talk about people being overnight sensations, but she literally was,’ he said. ‘She was the first global overnight superstar. To go from being that little lady in a small village in Scotland to being known all over the world and having famous Hollywood stars Twittering about you must have made her head spin.’ But Susan appeared to be coping, even though she could hardly believe what was going on. Her trip to New York wasn’t her first visit to the States in this strange new life she was leading; she had already been to the centre of Planet Showbiz - Los Angeles - when she was working on her CD.
    ‘There were great crowds waiting for us at LA airport,’ she told the Daily Express . ‘It was quite something. Nothing a woman like me was used to. But I found Americans to be incredibly warm and friendly and very open. It was quite something to be in Hollywood. It’s like stepping back in time, to another time and place. The hotel I was staying in? Apparently Frank Sinatra used to take his women back there. And I dipped my toes into the pool Grace Kelly swam in. I can’t wait to visit again.’
    There was also Susan’s changed appearance, about which her delight was palpable. In her late forties, she suddenly looked more soignée than she ever had in her life. ‘I brush up quite well,’ she continued, giggling slightly, Cinderella wearing the glass