Susan Boyle performance emotional but technically inferior? Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables, Britain’s Got Talent 2009, West Lothian, Blackburn, Glasgow, Scotland

April 19, 2009 by vongsundara 

I should preface this by saying that I am definitely a fan of Susan Boyle. In fact, I teared up when I first saw her performance. The emotion behind her vocals were absolutely amazing. That being said, I thought it would be a good idea to take a step back and actually analyze her performance of “I Dreamed A Dream” and figure out why exactly it has been so successful in capturing the hearts of millions.

Susan Boyle performs “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables on Britain’s Got Talent 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il5TBgD9kHI


And there you have it, the performance heard around the world. Susan Boyle’s personality shines through. She’s immensely likable and sassy to boot. Susan’s best decision was in how she framed the song, choosing the parts that made it sound like it was an inspirational song when really it’s a depressing song about someone giving up on their dreams after being beat up by life.

The shock value of the performance was insane, and the first phrase that Susan Boyle utters is technically spot on. It’s from this point, though, that the performance falls apart for me. Susan starts out in her head voice but is unable to sustain notes without deep quivering, though that may be a case of nerves. The unfortunate parts, though, are when Susan flat-out misses the notes in her low register, barely even trying. She showed no breath control and you can barely hear what she is saying.

Now overall, I think that the performance was still spectacular but moreso due to its shock value than for its technical achievement. Susan Boyle’s performance has sparked a deep debate on the internet and across blogs about superficiality in the music industry and in the world as a whole. While this is a good debate to have, I think that Susan is not very good subject matter to have this discussion framed around.

Some of the many posts on the internet have discussed how the music industry has shunned talented vocalists due to their looks since the video era. I think that this is true but that Susan Boyle is a terrible example of this, as I think she directly benefits from the video era, as her voice doesn’t hold up technically when viewed without the visual. It’s the shock value and juxtaposition of her looks against her talent that carries her through.

In short, Susan Boyle’s success is a product of her looks. She is famous because of how she looks not in spite of it. There’s nothing wrong with this, but I think people are taking some of this discussion a little too far in talking about the role of superficiality in the world when Susan is as much a product of it as anyone. You give her average looks and she would have few fans.

Lea Salonga performs “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables

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

I’ve included a technically spot-on rendition of the full song from Lea Salonga for comparison purposes. Now, Lea Salonga is definitely more theatrical in her delivery, which is to be expected, but you can clearly see by comparison that Susan Boyle doesn’t quite have the technical ability to pull off the full range in this song with sustained high notes and powerful low notes.

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9 Responses to “Susan Boyle performance emotional but technically inferior? Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables, Britain’s Got Talent 2009, West Lothian, Blackburn, Glasgow, Scotland”

  1. R Wilson on April 20th, 2009 11:30 PM

    I think you probably flunked you grade school music course

  2. Nat on April 23rd, 2009 3:25 AM

    Lea is a professional singer. Susan is an amateur. Considering that Susan sings karaoke and in choir, I would not expect her to be technically perfect compared to someone who sings for a living. Susan has raw talent. If you had never sang in front of millions of people, I am sure your voice would quiver too.

  3. vongsundara on April 23rd, 2009 4:27 AM

    Thanks for commenting. I definitely understand what you mean. I wasn't trying to put down Susan Boyle, as I actually am a fan of hers. She has a great story behind her, and she makes you want to see her succeed. Perhaps I shouldn't have included Lea Salonga an example, as it probably wasn't fair.

    I was really more trying to get people to see that Susan Boyle's looks are a big part of her success in addition to her vocal ability. I didn't like that she was being placed as a reason for why we should re-examine superficiality in society when her success is in large part due to her looks. I only brought up Lea Salonga to show that Susan's voice alone isn't enough to make her a star. It's the combination of both.

  4. Jason on April 23rd, 2009 9:07 PM

    Technically Lea may be more correct and yes its is definatly theatrical. Putting emotion into song so that people feel that is the difficult bit. Listening to Susan's version stirs the soul and if you listen to her version of Cry me a river, its the same. Theres huge emotional depth to her singing. There are not many singers who can convey that in their singing.
    Songs themselves can make you feel this way. Listen to a good singer singing I vow to thee, my country and the words and the music evoke emotion.
    All the versions of I have dreamed a dream, that I have heard do not evoke that emotion but Susan brings that out in her singing!
    Ok its difficult to uncouple the visuals of her from her voice but I stand by what I say.

  5. vongsundara on April 24th, 2009 3:34 PM

    Haha, I certainly can't argue with the assertion that Susan Boyle's performance connects more easily to audiences. She has much more emotional connection, whereas Lea's version is definitely a performance piece and presented as such with its over-the-top theatricality. Susan's performance has no such pretense and thus the words connect because it feels like Susan's words instead of Susan singing the words for a character she's playing.

    My only argument against Susan's emotional delivery is that she missed the point of the song. This is a song about someone who has given up on life and how her dreams are buried and dead and over and all hope is lost. Susan sang the song like it was an anthem for hope and joy and world peace.

  6. Petey Fairfur on April 24th, 2009 4:29 PM

    I agree with Vong. If people didn't want to hate this woman so much, they wouldn't cheer as loudly as they do. I can't understand the words this woman is singing. Sure, her voice is big when she pushes it there, but look at the fear on that female judge's face…If Susan Boyle had a chance to be famous, she wouldn't be singing a song from Les Miserables. So, she must be a one hit wonder…which we only like because we wanted to hate so much in the first place.

  7. Henry on June 15th, 2009 9:54 PM

    This is total garbage compared to BOYLES' pertformance.

  8. Dave on November 10th, 2009 2:37 PM

    It's sad but, once Susan gets to tour and has to perform live, the cracks will quickly start to show, cracks, of which there are many. This woman has an alright voice but the thing is, it's just alright.

  9. jason on November 25th, 2009 1:36 AM

    The girl ain’t doing bad!

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