Never judge a book by its cover. This is something the judges and audience of Britain’s Got Talent learned in April 2009, when Susan Boyle performed “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical Les Misérables (Lay-Mizzer-Obb). Susan Boyle was born on April 1, 1961, in Dechmont, West Lothian, Scotland and raised in Blackburn, West Lothian. Growing up she was the youngest of nine children. As a child, she was raised to believe that due to a difficult birth and being deprived of oxygen, she had a learning disability.
She attended Edinburgh Acting School. In 1995 she auditioned for Micheal Barrymore’s, My Kind of People. In 1998-99 she recorded multiple tracks like “Cry Me a River”, “Killing Me Softly”, and “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”. She won several local singing competitions before eventually auditioning for Britain’s Got Talent (BGT). Susan would compete in the third series of BGT, she performed “I Dreamed a Dream” in the first round where she was met with a standing ovation. She would go on to get second place.
After BGT, in 2012-13 she would find out that she was misdiagnosed, and was actually on the Autism Spectrum. The day after BGT finals, there were concerns about her behavior being erratic. She would spend 3 days in a private mental health clinic called The Priory. She would go on to release eight albums. She would also be nominated for 2 Grammies and 2 Billboard Music Awards. She would also achieve 3 Guinness Records, the Fastest-selling album by a female in the UK, the most successful first week’s sales of a UK debut album, and the oldest artist to reach number one with a debut album in the US and UK.
