This video showcases the performance of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent, the UK’s version of American Idol, and considered by many to be a better show. What is remarkable about this video is that it turns the world upside down and in the words of the Firesign Theatre shows that “Everything you know is wrong.” It starts like a pretty typical talent presentation by a frumpy, unattractive, middle age woman with spunk, but the assumption that you have while beginning to watch, an assumption clearly shared by all three judges, is that this is a pathetic woman from the styx with no talent who is about to be a laughing stock. Her double chin, her bushy eyebrows, the fact that she is almost 48, all go against her. Then she opens her mouth and the world changes. The reactions of the judges, including one who admits her own cynicism is a wonder to watch. There is a breathtaking sense of redemption and the victory of the human spirit and the notion that, yes, many of us really do have talent, even if we are not conventionally attractive.
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NPR Correspondent Margot Adler
NPR correspondent, Morning Edition & All Things Considered