old singer susan boyle britain's got talent judges I Dreamed a Dream

Susan Boyle ( 48 years old now) was born 1 April 1961. She is a Scottish singer who came to public attention when she appeared as a contestant on the third series of Britain's Got Talent. Boyle became known when she sang "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables in the competition's first round, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 11 April 2009.
Boyle has always enjoyed singing; she attended Edinburgh Acting School, and took part in the Edinburgh Fringe. Prior to her appearance on Britain's Got Talent, her main experience had come from singing in church and karaoke in the local pubs in her village. She had also tried out several times for My Kind of People.
Susan Boyle "I Dreamed a Dream"
Video from Britain's Got Talent site. Is she the real thing?

Here are the Lyrics text:
I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high,
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid
When dreams were made and used,
And wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung,
No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hopes apart
As they turn your dreams to shame.

And still I dream he'll come to me
And we will live our lives together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms
We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seems
Now life has killed
The dream I dreamed.
Susan Boyle - Cry Me A River Charity CD
Susan's first recording back in 1999, when she sang blues ballad Cry Me A River for a charity CD. Courtesy of the Daily Record.

When she appeared on the Britain's Got Talent stage, the audience and the judges appeared apprehensive and judgmental of her unpolished appearance. Upon finishing her song, she received a standing ovation from the live audience and unanimous praise from the judges, and has been dubbed "The Woman Who Shut Up Simon Cowell".
The contrast between the audience's first impression of her when she appeared on stage compared to the ovation she received afterwards triggered global interest. Articles about her appeared in newspapers worldwide, while the numbers who watched videos of her audition have set an online record. Within nine days of her televised debut, videos of her audition, subsequent interviews of her, and her 1999 rendition of "Cry Me a River" had been viewed a combined total of over 100 million times on the Internet. Cowell is reported to be setting up a contract with Boyle with his Syco Music company label, a subsidiary of Sony Music.
Susan Boyle was born 1 April 1961 in Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland, daughter to Patrick Boyle, a storeman at the British Leyland factory in Bathgate, and Bridget, a shorthand typist, who were both Irish immigrants. She was the youngest of four brothers and six sisters. Born when her mother was 47, Boyle was briefly deprived of oxygen during the difficult birth; she was diagnosed as having learning difficulties. She says she was bullied as a child, and was nicknamed "Susie Simple" at school.
After leaving school with few qualifications, she was employed for the only time in her life as a trainee cook in the kitchen of West Lothian College for six months, and took part in government training schemes. She visited the theatre from time to time to listen to professional singers, and performed at a number of local venues. Boyle remained active as a volunteer with the Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Blackburn.
Boyle still lives in the family home, a four-bedroom council house, with her ten-year-old cat, Pebbles. Her father died in the 1990s, and her siblings had left home. As she never married, Boyle was devoted to looking after her ageing mother until she died in 2007 at the age of 91. She said during an interview just before she sang on the talent show that she had "never been kissed" but later said "It was just banter and it has been blown way out of proportion." Boyle's devotion to her mother meant that she did not have any time for herself. A neighbour reported that when Bridget Boyle died, her daughter "wouldn't come out for three or four days or answer the door or phone."
Boyle's widespread Internet success and her appeal in reaching out to millions of people across the world, has meant that she has become a cultural icon in a relatively short time. For instance, Boyle's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" has been credited with causing a surge in ticket sales in the Vancouver production of Les Misérables. Boyle has also been portrayed humorously (in drag) by American comedian Jay Leno, who jokingly claimed that they were related through his mother's Scottish heritage.
The American cartoon show South Park made a reference to Susan Boyle in the episode "Fatbeard", which aired on 22 April 2009; the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show aired a comedy sketch showing the "feel good" effect that Susan Boyle's performance has had on people; The Simpsons aired a new commercial, "Springfield's Got Talent", in which Homer Simpson talks about his dreams to be as successful as Boyle. A European trailer for the video game The Sims 3 includes a character mocked up as Boyle receiving praises from other in-game characters, wishing her "good luck". bio info (c) wikipedia.org