Susan Boyle

Susan Margaret Boyle (born 15 June 1961) is a Scottish singer who came to international public attention in 2009 after she appeared as a contestant on 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. In the final of the third series of the show, Boyle finished in second place, behind dance troupe Diversity.

When she appeared on the Britain's Got Talent stage for the first time, the audience and the judges appeared apprehensive and judgmental of her "frumpy" appearance. Upon finishing her song, she received a standing ovation from the live audience and unanimous praise from the judges. Simon Cowell is reported to be setting up a contract with Boyle with his Syco Music company label, a subsidiary of Sony Music.

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.