'I'm 47, and That's Just One Side of Me'

Susan Boyle seemed unfazed by the snickering when she took the stage last weekend to sing her heart out.

At 47, she is used to being dismissed. She confessed to the camera backstage that she is unemployed, lives with her cats, and never has been kissed. A British newspaper recently reported that as a child, she was bullied for her appearance.

Jeers from strangers? Awful but familiar. She would not be deterred.

Boyle lives in a small town in Scotland, but she has wanted to be a singer since she was 12. So she breathed deeply and outran her fear to become a contestant on the popular TV show "Britain's Got Talent."

The show was founded three years ago by "American Idol's" Simon Cowell, who didn't bother to hide his horror when Boyle — dressed in a modest, cream-colored dress with a sash at her waist and a contestant's badge around her neck — walked out on stage. She told the judges that she hoped one day to be as successful as Elaine Paige, the renowned British singer and actress. She gave her age and then nervously wiggled her hips after some people laughed. Cowell rolled his eyes. Another judge, Piers Morgan, winced. The TV camera zoomed in on scornful faces in the audience.

Then Boyle raised the microphone and started to sing.

Instantly, and I mean from the moment she hit the first note, everything — and everybody — changed.

She sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from "Les Miserables." I can't think of a more poignant choice for this underestimated woman who dared to imagine a bigger life. It's not a happy tune. In the musical, it's sung by the character Fantine after she is left alone, without a job and destitute. Boyle delivered it as an anthem for every person who has ever felt robbed of hope. Her voice flowed effortlessly higher and higher, and she took the audience with her. By midsong, hundreds were on their feet cheering.

When a friend sent me a link to video of Boyle's performance, I was moved enough to post it on my blog, at http://www.cleveland.com/schultz.

What I missed was how many people would see themselves in Susan Boyle.

Already, millions have posted comments about her performance on YouTube and other Web sites. Even in my little patch of the universe, hundreds who saw the video have sent private e-mails to my work, home and Facebook accounts. You might expect a few middle-aged women to respond with tears, but scores of men told me they cried, too, and they echoed the heart's universal desire: I wish I had that courage.

So many expressed, in various ways, their fear that others never would know — or care to discover — the real people lurking behind the caricatures they present to the world. Many also were ashamed by their initial disregard for Susan Boyle.

Even the most brazen among us are full of self-doubt. Some just hide it better than others. In uncertain times, such as these, doubt often morphs into flagellation. A lot of second-guessing begins with "could have," segues to "should have" and ends with "loser."

Maybe that's why so many relished Boyle's conquest. There she was, shedding a sidelined life and claiming center stage and then forcing every naysayer to see why.

"Without a doubt, that was the biggest surprise I have had in three years on this show," Morgan told Boyle after she sang. "When you stood there with that cheeky grin and said, 'I want to be like Elaine Paige,' everyone was laughing at you. No one is laughing now."

Amanda Holden, another judge, echoed Morgan's remorse.

"I am so thrilled because I know that everybody was against you. I honestly think that we were all being very cynical, and I think that's the biggest wake-up call ever."

"I love her," one reader after another wrote to me. "I love Susan Boyle."

This sudden wave of affection for a lady who never has been kissed reminds me of a line from another song in "Les Miserables":

"To love another is to see the face of God."

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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