Susan Boyle: Fact or fiction?

Yeah I know everybody has been talking about the Susan Boyle hype, I saw the video on youtube and it is certainly amazing, but I sometimes wonder if the world is as perfect as it appears.

I agree she can really sing, but I guess the critical factor for her success is not merely her talent, but the marketing strategy employed by the tv producers of the show. These guys really know how to play the game!

I wouldn't call it a fiction, indeed i see it as a successful packaging technique that fully utilized the power of the internet to achieve its goal..

I just read the article below and it sounds quite interesting. See if you agree:

http://www.vancouversun.com/Entertainment/Susan+Boyle+Fact+fiction/1521577/story.html

Susan Boyle: Fact or fiction? 

By Bart Jackson, Vancouver Sun Whaddaya mean there's no Santa Claus?!It's worse than that. Internet sensation Susan Boyle, who garnered at least 30 million YouTube views with her Cinderella performance on Britain's Got Talent, is a player in a giant fraud.Or is she? She can surely sing, as evidenced by the tears that flooded the world as the plain Scottish lass sang the Les Miz hit I Dreamed a Dream.Suddenly, the 47-year-old self-proclaimed virgin became everybody's sweetheart, the kind that brings warmth in the middle of a frosty recession.And a show did talent curmudgeon Simon Cowell surely put on. Or was it crusty Cowell's put-on? If the Boyle tour de force was a publicity ploy, it rocked. From nowhere, she was everywhere: Oprah, Larry King, newscasts around the globe. Billions of hearts warmed.Then, out of New York City, among others, a giant wet blanket was thrown to cool the planet's ardour. Maureen Callahan in the New York Post noted that the Boyle event was too perfect: "A dowdy, 47-year-old virgin named Susan Boyle takes the stage, wearing her low heels and her Sunday best."The crowd laughs at her, and Boyle -- how devastating -- laughs along. She says she wants to be a professional singer; people laugh harder and louder. They point. It's grammar school and the Roman Colosseum combined. Simon Cowell -- panelist and show creator -- rolls his eyes. And then Susan Boyle sings."The same conspiracy theories rumbled online. Notes "Rick" on Yahoo:1) All of these shows have try-outs to filter out thousands of aspiring hacks before going on international television. Simon and the other judges were listening to her for the first time. This is not normal.2) The next sign to look for is the clumsy humpty-dumpty music played in the background at the beginning while she eats a doughnut. . . . The audience must have the perception of her being totally hopeless before she sings for maximum affect.3) The orchestra's music continues to play in the background even while the judges give their verdicts. As far as I know, this is the ONLY time this has ever happened in the history of this show. Simon's vote is saved for last and suspiciously timed out perfectly before the crescendo of the orchestra. This is exactly how a movie would plan the same effect to help jerk a few extra tears from the audience.Still, if it wasn't the spontaneous "reality" it pretended to be, the show was staged to perfection. And in these parlous times, give a fairy tale its due.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPZh4AnWyk