Tam's Tall Tales
- When a House is Not a Home
Graphic of Susan Boyle via Wikimedia Commons
Susan Boyle made the transition from karaoke performer to international star after knocking the judges' socks off with a belting rendition of " I Dreamed a Dream" in the TV show "Britain's Got Talent." The most popular YouTube video submission of her audition had nearly 2.5 million views in the first 72 hours. In December 2009, her audition was named the most watched YouTube video of the year with over 120 million viewings, more than three times higher than the second most popular video. The Los Angeles Times wrote that her popularity on YouTube may in part be due to the broad range of emotion packed into a short clip which was "perfect for the Internet".The pastel drawing of Susan Boyle on the right is by Christian Lessenich, via Wikimedia Commons.
That was in 2009. Since then fortune has followed fame and good luck to her. In her first year of fame, Susan made £5 million with the release of her debut album I Dreamed a Dream and its lead-off singles, "I Dreamed a Dream" and "Wild Horses". This first album became Amazon.com's best-selling album in pre-sales on 4 September 2009, nearly three months before the scheduled release. The album sold 411,000 copies in the UK and became the fastest selling debut record and she remains a popular artist.
Her net worth was estimated at £22 million in April 2012 and as of 2013, Susan had sold over 19 million albums worldwide and received two Grammy Awards nominations.
But old habits die hard and recently it was reported that she had moved from a substantial house that she had bought with her show business earnings back to her former Blackburn West Lothian council house. (Council houses are local authority houses, normally part of a council estate and are a form of public or social housing althoh, as in Susan's case, they can often be bought by the tenants). The newer, posher house remains in SuBo's possession (Subo is a nickname used by the UK press) and is used now to store her clothes...The picture here is of a typical council house estate in Blacknurn, West Lothian by Richard Webb, via Wikimedia Commons.
Hats off to the lady who has emerged onto the international stage.
Please give me whatever feedback comes to mind via tamfromrampant@gmail.com.
Tam O'Ranter
May 2014Return to Tam O'Ranter Index
