Susan Boyle looks back on a decade since her BGT audition

Susan Boyle talks about life and music

Wild, frizzy hair splayed out around her face, bushy eyebrows dancing up and down... It didn’t take long for audience members to pigeonhole Susan Boyle; a fame-chasing frump and a silly wee wifie who lived alone with cats.

Their cruel, judgmental faces said it all. Many giggled and smirked, others raised their (nicely manicured) eyebrows, and judges Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan exchanged scowls and rolls of the eyeballs. Heck, there was even an ironic wolf whistle.

Looking back at this particular episode of Britain’s Got Talent, which aired in April 2009, it’s hard not to be embarrassed by the sheer ugliness of it all.

But it wasn’t Susan Boyle, sporting a gold lace dress and wiggling her hips, who was ugly – it was the reaction to her.

Having been interviewed by BGT hosts Ant and Dec ahead of her performance, revealing she was unemployed, single, had never been kissed and indeed owned a cat, the audience lapped up the stereotype.

They reckoned they had Susan nailed down. And then she sang.

In a matter of seconds, everything changed.

“You didn’t expect that, did you?!” beamed Ant from the wings, while the judges sat slack-jawed and speechless.

When Susan finished singing her song – ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ from Les Miserables – nobody was laughing, although Morgan rather harshly reminded her that everyone had been.

Certainly, nobody had been expecting this strange wee woman from Blackburn in West Lothian to boast such an angelic voice.

That she was exceptionally talented, was in no doubt.

Millions of viewers were captivated by her stunning performance.

And more than a decade down the line, they still are.

Next month, Susan, now 58, kicks off her Ten Tour, a celebration of 10 years since the BGT audition that catapulted her to global fame and kick-started her phenomenal recording career. It’s also a chance for her to mark the launch of her new album, also called Ten.

The tour, which launches at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall on March 1 and heads to Dundee’s Caird Hall on March 3, will feature Susan’s greatest hits, as well as new music. It promises to be an honest and intimate show that will inspire and delight.

“I’ve not toured for six years so I’m very excited,” says Susan, when we catch up on the phone.

“I’ve been working on lots of new songs and material, and I can’t wait to let people hear it.”

While she’s in Dundee, Susan – who says she’s a massive fan of the city – hopes to visit the V&A museum.

“It’s a beautiful place and I really love the Dundee crowd; people are

I pinch myself at how lucky I am. More than 10 years on, I’m still having a wonderful time enjoying incredible opportunities

really friendly,” she says. “Last time I performed there, I got a great welcome.

“The Caird Hall is a really nice venue and I’m looking forward to playing there, but a trip to V&A Dundee is on my bucket list.”

The audience at her new show will be able to enjoy “lots of dancing”, she reveals.

“I like things to be as varied as possible. I want people to be dancing in their seats!” she giggles. “That’s a bit new to me – the dancing – but I really love it!”

I ask if Susan gets nervous before she performs. “Yes, I do, but it’s good nerves,” she admits. “You have to really concentrate and get everything right. You have to do your best for the people who come to see you!

“Performing live, you’ve got a relationship with the audience.

“You feel their energy, and you might get a wee a laugh with them.

“Every song has a meaning. It can change according to circumstances and what’s happening around you. If it’s a sad song, it speaks for itself.

“When you sing, you tell a story. It can be emotional, yes.”

During a particularly moving song, does Susan ever fear she might break down in tears?

“You never break down and cry on stage, but if you can make others cry, then you’ve done your job really well,” she reasons. “It’s about taking people on a journey.”

Susan is hugely excited about her special guest on the Ten Tour – fellow BGT alumnus Jai McDowall. The singer– songwriter from Irvine won the fifth series in 2011.

“He’s got a terrific voice and he’s a lovely person to work with,” she says.

SOMETHING IN THE WATER

On the subject of fellow musicians, Susan admits to being a big fan of Dundee band The View and Lewis Capaldi – who, she recently discovered, attended the same school in West Lothian as she did.

Last year, she teased the Someone You Loved singer on social media about the possibility of forming a supergroup with her.

In a tongue-in-cheek video message, she told him: “Right Mr Capaldi, less of your peely-wally. Let’s discuss that supergroup. Come on over... There’s something in the West Lothian water here, isn’t there?”

Having not heard back, I wonder if Susan’s still keen to work with him?

“If he’s not doing anything, I’m his woman!” she giggles.

“He’s good – really good!”

The day after the Dundee gig, Susan will play Glasgow’s SEC Armadillo – the venue where she auditioned for BGT back in 2009.

Heading back to perform there is an experience she reckons will be “surreal”.

“It’s sure to bring back a few memories!” she admits. “OK, so I didn’t win BGT in 2009, and that was a bit of a disappointment. But coming second in a national competition isn’t so bad! I’ve actually managed to make a career of it.

“I pinch myself at how lucky I am. More than 10 years on, I’m still having a wonderful time enjoying incredible opportunities.

“Life has been unbelievable – a big, unpredictable rollercoaster.”

Certainly, it has been something of a whirlwind of a decade for Susan who, before becoming famous, was an unemployed charity worker who lived alone with her cat Pebbles.

A member of her local church choir, she would sing in front of her parish, but had never performed in front of a large audience.

Despite attending Edinburgh Acting School, Susan’s previous attempts to make it – including recording a charity CD of Cry Me a River in 1999 and appearing on ITV show My Kind of People – didn’t come to much.

In the early 2000s, she took time out to care for her mother Bridget, who sadly passed away in 2007.

But it was her mum who had encouraged her to enter BGT, inspired by Paul Potts, the winner of the talent show’s first season.

Paul had been an unassuming mobile phone salesman before his audition, but he stunned judges with his rendition of Nessun Dorma, and went on to become a global opera star.

So, if Paul could do it, then why couldn’t Susan?

And of course, she did.

Since 2009, she’s had eight bestselling albums, won numerous music awards, has sung for three popes and met many musical idols.

Right now, she’s working on her ninth album, plus there’s soon to be a movie made about her life story – with rumours that Meryl Streep is taking on the lead role.

A film company picked up the rights to Susan’s 2010 autobiography The Woman I Was Born To Be and is thought to be approaching the likes of Netflix and Amazon, with Susan getting the final say on the script.

However, while Susan says she’s “in negotiation”, she can’t reveal any more details just yet...

ROLE MODEL

While growing up, Susan was bullied and cruelly dubbed “Simple Susan”.

In 2013, she was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome – a form of autism that affects social interaction and communication skills – despite believing she had learning difficulties.

“As a kid, I was told I had brain damage. But I always knew that was an unfair label,” she reflects. “Now, I’ve got a better understanding of what’s wrong, and feel relieved and more relaxed about myself.”

A series of tests showed her intelligence levels were not connected with her condition and, in fact, her IQ is above average.

Throughout her life, Susan has had depression, anxiety and mood swings, so it was extremely difficult, and indeed frightening, for her to be at the epicentre of such attention and excitement in the early days of her fame.

“You reach a stage where you can handle it,” she muses. “Everything becomes less scary.”

Indeed, she’s regarded as a role model by others with Asperger’s and in Susan’s words, she likes to think that she sets “an example”.

“If I can do this, they can do it too,” she says, matter of factly.

The way she dealt with local bullies in Blackburn – stories of her enduring years of harassment hit the headlines in 2017 – was another example of Susan’s

strength and resilience in the face of adversity.

The teenagers threw stones, bottles and burning paper, and shouted abuse at the star.

However, Susan claims she’s learned to take such “daft behaviour” in her stride and let it wash over her.

“That was just a silly thing,” she says. “They’re just young lads. They don’t understand.

“Once you realise that, you don’t take it too personally.”

Luckily, Susan has a strong network of neighbours who have been hugely supportive of her.

“They’re very friendly people in Blackburn – they’d give you the shirt off their back!” she smiles.

“The support they give me is great. “I suppose that I’ve put the place on the map, and they are really happy about that.”

She says she’ll never move out of her modest three-bedroom former council house – despite having bought a £300,000 new-build detached villa at the other end of the small town, which she calls The Posh House.

She couldn’t settle there, and instead, one of her nieces lives in it.

“There’s no way I’d move out of the house because it’s where I’ve lived all my life,” she says simply.

“It’s got a lot of memories. I’d never want to leave.

“I promised to look after my mum’s house and I’ve got neighbours who look out for me, so it’s great here.

“It’s where I feel secure.”

Susan is convinced her mum is with her in spirit, looking out for her.

“Oh yes, she’s still there,” she says. “It feels good; it feels safe.”

LOOKING FOR LOVE?

These days, it’s a very different Susan Boyle in the public eye. She now presents a polished and preened image to the world.

Her hair is sleek and shiny, her make-up done beautifully, and her style is bang on. She has also lost weight, thanks to cycling, and, after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, cutting down on sugary snacks.

It’s an amazing transformation, and one that has made Susan feel more confident about herself.

Is she looking for love, I ask.

“I don’t need to look for love – I get it in abundance from other people!” she laughs.

She reiterates that she’s not planning on scrolling through Tinder any time soon, preferring to take a more romantic approach to dating.

Collapsing into a shy fit of girlish giggles, Susan bats off my line of questioning, saying: “It’s nice to wait to be asked! It’s manners to wait until you’re asked. But you never know!

“Watch this space!”

MURRAY CHALMERS ON THE NIGHT HE MET SUSAN AT A KYLIE CONCERT

I’m probably the least likely Susan Boyle fan you can imagine.

Glam rock and punk changed my life in the 1970s and made me eternally arts-orientated and defiantly antiestablishment.

My musical taste is for misfits and mavericks. I rarely watch TV talent shows.

Two things changed my blinkered vision: catching Susan on Britain’s Got Talent, which made me hopelessly enraptured by her story and her voice, and meeting her last summer at Kylie’s concert at Edinburgh Castle.

I’m Kylie’s publicist and was sat alone at the show in a row reserved for special guests.

Ostensibly, I was working but “work” involved singing, dancing and enjoying the show.

Halfway through, I looked along and saw a fairly unassuming woman also dancing her socks off, rapturously caught in the moment.

That woman was Susan.

I didn’t know then that she had sold 25 million albums and set many sales records around the world. She was there with no security.

After the show, Kylie’s manager asked if I would escort Susan backstage.

I didn’t know how scary my new security job would be because I hadn’t realised just how famous Susan is.

As we manoeuvred the crowds, people started calling to her, grabbing her, genuinely thrilled to see her.

At one stage, I felt she would never make it through unscathed but she kept going, a look of Zen-like determination on her face.

When we made it to Kylie’s dressing room, Susan was completely nonplussed, while I was shaking.

The music industry is both exhilarating and unforgiving.

To survive it, establish a career and keep your soul intact is something relatively few people manage to do with any dignity.

That Susan has managed to do that while living a reasonably normal life in her place of birth in Scotland is something to be admired.

There have been dramas along the way but she has navigated them with grace and an innate sense of selfpreservation.

She doesn’t play the game but has been remarkably successful at doing it her way.

In a way, she’s as punk as they come. Backstage that night, I realised how little ego she has; in fact I couldn’t find one!

We’ve worked with one-hit wonders who think more of themselves than this global record-breaker.

When she asked who else I worked with apart from Kylie, I mentioned a few names, including Coldplay.

She whispered: “I covered one of their songs, you know.”

That song was Fix You and her version is quite beautiful. She’s also covered Wild Horses by the Stones, and that too is so magical.

I confess to having cried when she didn’t win Britain’s Got Talent.

Susan is both a maverick and a misfit, one who was adopted by the mainstream, yet remains an enigma.

Go and watch her TV audition tape again – it’s punk attitude from Blackburn!

What a woman!

A true West Lothian icon, it was fitting that Susan was Chieftain at the West Lothian Highland Games and British Pipe Band Championships at Meadow Park, Bathgate.

From her stereotype-destroying BGT audition to heading out on tour with Jai McDowall and even meeting the Pope, Susan Boyle has had quite a journey.