Susan Boyle of Britain's Got Talent, a Homely Sensation

People become famous for all sorts of things, some of them even overnight. The overnight type of celebrity seems to happen when there is a novely that comes along with the talent. This certainly seems to be the case with Susan Boyle, who became instantly famous after singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables on Britain's Got Talent. Her new found fame looks like it might have as much to do with her appearance as it does her singing ability.

Susan boyle is not someone that you are instantly drawn to. In fact, she is being described all over the internet with words like frumpy, dowdy, unattractive, and homely. And those are just the nice ones. Unfortunately, we tend to assume that when someone is unattractive that they will be inept at other things as well. That is why Susan Boyle's performance on Britain's got Talent made such waves. People were expecting her to fail based on her looks and were pleasantly surprised when she did not.

Ms. Boyle has become so popular that the video of her performance has already been seen by over 26 million people on YouTube and has been the most popular topic on Twitter all week. (The Guardian) A clip of the video can be found here. I do not believe her singing would have been so widely buzzed about if she were a regular looking person who sang that well.

Now the question seems to be whether Susan Boyle will be getting a makeover to improve the look that has made her famous. Apparently not. The people over at Britain's Got Talent know what they are doing. According to Judge Amanda Holder, Boyle "needs to stay exactly as she is because that's the reason we love her" and "the minute we turn her into a glamou-puss is when it's spoiled". (US Weekly) Translation: we know that people are talking about her so much because she's an uggo and it's good for ratings.

At this point I'm not sure if people are rooting for Boyle because she's an underdog or if they're just laughing at her. I would hope that we just love an underdog story, but I'm afraid that's not the case. Either way, I do hope that Susan Boyle extends her 15 minutes of fame beyond Britain's Got Talent. From the looks of her, she may not be getting a lot more breaks in life.

Sources

Leigh Holmwood, "Susan Boyle: A Dream Come True", The Guardain

"Susan Boyle Won't Get Makeover Vows Judge", US Weekly