The Feel-Good Performance of the Year

I would accuse you of living under a rock if you have not yet heard about the following, but I was actually several days late in coming to the party so it may be that if you have anything better to do than troll the Internet, it's quite possible that you have missed the story of Susan Boyle, the 47-year-old Scottish amateur karaoke singer who set out to fulfill a promise to her deceased mother to "make something" of her life. Seems Ms. Boyle has led a rather small and quiet existence in her little village, but all that changed overnight after she auditioned for Britain's Got Talent, the veddy veddy English counterpart to our own America's Got Talent.

The YouTube video speaks for itself, and at last count had received over eleven million hits. 11,000,000. That is staggering. I will confess, I navigated my way to the clip after seeing a headline on my laptop's homepage that read something like, "47-Year-Old, Never Been Kissed, Makes Simon Swoon." I'm not an American Idol watcher but I know enough about Simon Cowell to know that this was something I wanted to see. And oh, was I right. If you STILL haven't seen it, click here.

Susan Boyle's performance is stunning, no two ways about it. But what makes it so notable goes much further than the notes she sings. It's the classic tale of judging a book by its cover and dismissing it because it's not splashy or colorful. Susan Boyle walked out on the stage and was immediately disregarded. You could see the labels in the faces of the judges and the audience: "Frumpy." "Dumpy." "None-too-attractive." "Needs to pluck her eyebrows." "Goofy." "Needs a serious makeover." And the unspoken question on everyone's minds was clearly, "What in the world is SHE doing up there?"

And then . . . it was beautiful. She opened her mouth. She sang. And from the first note she had turned those snobby, sneering, judgmental critics into cheering, teary-eyed, adoring fans who couldn't applaud loudly enough. It brought tears to MY eyes, I'll tell you that.

And I believe I once wrote about how I love when the "tough guy" turns out to be a marshmallow; well, Simon Cowell IS the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man! Never, and I mean NEVER, have I seen such a reaction from him. In fact, for me much of the pleasure in the story doesn't come just from listening to Susan sing, but in seeing and hearing the judges so thoroughly own up to their own misjudgment of her. Simon was practically giddy after the performance, which may or may not have been due to the dollar figures dancing in his head when he thought of how much money she's going to make for him after he puts together a contract for her, but that's beside the point. The point is that for just a moment the whole world was reminded that it really is a bad idea to judge a book by its cover.

"But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7