Why susan boyle is famous

With music, Boyle is finally animated. Since my arrival, she's been perched quietly on the edge of her sofa, avoiding eye contact with the stranger in her living room.

There is something of the watchful little girl about her, dressed in her smart frock-for- visitors: plain black with a white Peter Pan collar. Her PR talks while Boyle stays silent. Her personal assistant serves soup and sandwiches while Boyle observes. I've been invited for lunch, but Boyle has already had hers. It is Boyle's home, yet you could easily mistake her for a visitor here, too.

There is a touching vulnerability about the Scottish singer that seems at odds with the robustness of her extraordinary career — 14 million album sales in 14 months. The first British female artist followed only by Adele to have a number one album in the UK and the US simultaneously. Now Boyle is diversifying. She has a cameo role in The Christmas Candle , a festive, feel-good film based on the novel by Max Lucado.

Fox Searchlight is also in pre-production of a film about her life, with Meryl Streep topping the company's wishlist to play Boyle.

Her world outside this sitting room is expanding all the time. She comes back here, to her council house in Blackburn, West Lothian, to remind herself who she really is. Her appeal? I am the same as you, I think. You would not meet Susan Boyle and think her quite like other people. Indeed it was her unique combination of the ordinary and extraordinary that charmed the public when she sang on Britain's Got Talent in Her voice is visceral, emotive, but it was only when combined with the expectations of an audience that gazed at a middle- aged woman with grey hair and thought she was going to sound like a strangled cat, that it became truly special.

It was the element of surprise: the juxtaposition of her mundane appearance, her weird little wiggle and offbeat humour with the sheer, life-affirming determination of her dreams that made a nation of viewers wipe a silent tear as they reached for a cuppa and a digestive round the telly.

Boyle knew people were laughing at her before she sang that night. In fact she was having a laugh herself, she says. She had attended 12 television auditions over the years and included BGT because she liked "Piersy baby", Piers Morgan. Interestingly, when her initial wariness wears off, Boyle displays warmth, kindness and empathy in conversation.

This is sometimes lost in articles about her, which refer variously to "learning difficulties" or "slowness" caused by complications at birth.

Such descriptions are a puzzle — like looking at an apple and being told it's a pear. Boyle is perfectly intelligent. Her assistant reads a glowing review of her new album, stumbling over a word before she can place it. No, the clues lie elsewhere. The delayed eye contact.

The visible anxiety until the stranger in her presence settles into at least superficial familiarity. The slightly offbeat laughter in the middle of conversation. The sudden and obvious emotional withdrawal if she feels uncomfortable with a particular subject. She does not like to criticise anyone, and you can almost see her anxiety levels rising. Crucially, the fact is she is surrounded by people: a personal assistant who lives locally; a PR from London who flies up specially for this interview.

She also has a manager and someone who helps with housework. Sometimes people misunderstand. Sometimes she gets frustrated.

The specialist discovered her IQ was above average. She was raised in the town by her miner and veteran father Patrick and her mother Bridget, who was a shorthand typist. Boyle has said in previous interviews that she has no plans to leave the family home as it's where she feels closest to her later mother. Boyle has never married and is currently single. She famously revealed back in that she had never been kissed, and only met her first boyfriend when she was They reportedly met in Clearwater, Florida, and they made plans for him to move to Scotland to be with her.

I don't want to say any more about who he is right now as that would be unfair on him. All I'll say is we are around the same age and he was a very nice guy," she told The Sun at the time. Sadly, the couple would later split and during an interview last year with UK talk show Loose Women , Boyle said she hasn't dated in the six years since. Not bad for someone who came runner-up. For a daily dose of 9Honey, sign up here to receive our top stories straight to your inbox.

Auto news: Italy's iconic rally-bred hot hatch is on course to return - drive. And 10 years later, the clip remains one of the most genuine triumphs to come out of a music competition TV show.

In a brilliantly edited montage, the entire room transforms as Boyle begins to sing, showing her winning over the crowd with every new lyric. And I just want to say that it was a complete privilege listening to that. Viewers at home agreed, with tens of millions of people watching her performance on YouTube in the 24 hours after the episode aired.

Still, with her mother's encouragement, she made demo tapes and sent them to radio stations and managers, but with little luck. By , Boyle finally found a voice coach who rallied behind her, but it was tragedy a few years later that led her to take the chance with Britain's famed competition television show via The Famous People.

The mother that had always been there to encourage Susan Boyle to go after her dreams died in , and the talented singer decided to give up on music and instead dedicate herself to a life of charity.