Last night a homely, gentle-natured, single woman celebrated her 50th birthday in the West Lothian town where she has lived all her life. Wearing an outfit bought that afternoon at a high-street store, she hosted what she described as “a small and intimate party for a few close friends and relatives”.
It was not quite as small or as intimate as the kind that Bathgate is used to. Around her table were due to assemble some of the biggest names in television. And the toast was not just to a 50th birthday, but to a woman who is s a showbiz phenomenon.
In only two years Susan Boyle has become a multimillion-selling singer whose superstardom is one of the most remarkable stories of popular culture. With her albums regularly climbing effortlessly up the charts and a fanbase spread across the world, her wealth is estimated at around £18 million.
Quite how “SuBo” has been transformed so rapidly from a shy Scots “wifey” to an international superstar tells us as much about her audiences as herself. Carey Cooper, Professor of Psychology at Lancaster University, puts her meteoric rise down to the public’s championing of the underdog.
“She’s everything that is different to what our society has become. We have become based on celebrities, youth and good looks over the last decade,” he says. “She is the antithesis of that. She is an extremely talented person, but she doesn’t fit the standard TV image.
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“Most of us are like that — how many of us are good looking, young, attractive? We identify with the underdog and she is that she’s made it with her talent and likeability.
“It’s a very British thing. What we are celebrating is the talent. We are celebrating the person, not the image, not the celebrity, but the person and the talent of that person.”
It has been two years since Boyle first Dreamed a Dream on Britain’s Got Talent, a performance that made her an instant internet sensation and prompted the world’s press to congregate on the doorstep of the council house where she had grown up and still lived. She was the talk of the sofa on daytime TV shows around the world — with her hirsute eyebrows and her confession to having never been kissed some of the key issues up for debate.
It was shaping up to be the archetypal Cinderella story, with the role of Prince Charming being played interchangeably by the BGT judges Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan — and anyone who dared to criticise was branded an ugly sister.
It transpired that she sang in the local church choir — and pub karaoke night — but had summoned the courage to enter BGT only after her mother, her greatest fan, had died. She wanted to make the woman whom she had nursed through illness proud of her.
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There was, however, the inevitable backlash. There were tales of SuBo — the stage name bestowed upon her by the tabloids, along with the less agreeable “Hairy Angel” — becoming emotionally unstable. Questions were asked about her mental fitness to withstand such pressure.
Yet the sour notes were short. Boyle became the first British woman to top the UK and US album charts in the same year, selling 14 million records along the way. Last year she sang for the Pope at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, a particularly proud moment for the devout Roman Catholic.
The nation loved her and she professed to loving her new life — but she still refused to give up her old one.
In between travelling the world, she remained in her home in West Lothian, where last night’s “small party” for friends, family and “a few well-known faces” took place. She said beforehand: “I’m looking forward to turning 50. There’s not much I can do about it but I’m happy to be reaching this birthday.
“I’ve had some wonderful moments throughout my life, especially over the past two years, and I would like to thank everyone for their kindness.”
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While Boyle’s party may have been characteristically low-key, her fans were still keen to make a fuss. Hundreds have sent birthday greetings. They also presented her with a massive quilt embroidered with the names of 500 friends, family and fans who have helped her in the past couple of years.
And Cowell, the impresario who catapulted her from the council house to the world stage, sent her a message which read: “Happy 50th birthday, Susan. You are an amazing lady and I hope you have a fantastic day.”