Susan Boyle -- Britain's Got Talent

i agree 200%. do you have the link? i think i can find it. be back shortly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

this made me cry the first time i saw it, i cried even harder the second time. what a beautiful message. my daughter's teacher showed it to her class, and i could not approve more. it's time that we quit caring about the superficial and start caring about the person instead.

I shrieked at the sight of such a manipulative staging of a situation. American Idol is the worse.
Exploiting the ugly (her ugliness was very carfully designed...) ,faking the disdain and the awe...just awful.

mimi -- you need to take anti-cynical pills....

mimi, i think your initial response was spot on. but i think that usually they would continue the disdain. if you think that she was only accepted because of her ugliness what does that imply?

obviously the handlers knew she had talent? would you wish they hid that? and most usually on this show they only sometimes have talent, and often not much?

i don't care for the show, in general. but on an occasion like this when it can remind us that we might need to look a bit further than the surface when we determine what people have to offer, this was superb.

the voice is lovely and pure

Everything in these shows is staged. They have a script. People, wake up. This is a reality show!

mimi, you take the good where you can find it. i don't really care if i'm being naive by being told by a manipulative show that someone who isn't perfect can be an idol. if they want to tell me that you must be perfet, well, that's different.

A real "Can't Judge a Book by its Cover" moment. I loved it!

mimi, do you think Susan has been diminished in any way??

No, diminished not. And she is a star now. But somebody put on her the black pantyhose, did her hair old-fashioned, and couched her on what to say to sound ridiculous. They made her uglier in purpose. Too bad we live in a society where ugly people can never dream to be a star. It is so unusual that they have to make her uglier, take the whole thing to the limit, stage it, and manipulate people's feelings for it to happen. Sad.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-borowitz/talented-ugly-person-baff_b_188556.html

great headline!

I don't think she's ugly, just homely looking and she will look better now that she is a star!
Have you ever seen the most beautiful young stars without makeup???? They look average!!!

Gotta agree with abouitready here mimi. Your cynicism is overdone. Pure speculation on your part that she was coached. similar thing happened with Paul Potts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09SzPhLP6nE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_potts

The more that regular people succeed then the situation that you lament can be turned around. Yet when it does happen you cry foul because you suspect too much manipulation. Sad indeed.

It had to be real. It was on tv....and American Idol. Nothing on American Idol is phony or staged at all, right?

who cares what she looked like -- the voice is fabulous. Get her on that SWAN show and she can look like barbie in no time at all...

she's for real. you know these Scottish small village gals.