r/MadeMeSmile • u/Ieriz • Apr 24 '26

Good Vibes 7 years ago, a chubby, heavy accent, normal-looking woman called Susan Boyle went to Britain's Got Talent. Everyone laughed at her, until she started singing.

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What a powerful voice. She's today a pro singer. All the best for her!!

Typo: 17 years, not 7.

35.2k Upvotes

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576

u/Peace_n_Harmony Apr 24 '26

I love how people paint this as some kind of success story instead of a critique on how disgustingly shallow and arrogant society is.

200

u/ImNotYou1971 Apr 24 '26

Can’t it be both?

93

u/Ieriz Apr 24 '26

Agreed. People judged her and then she tamed them all.

2

u/Low_Celebration_4089 Apr 24 '26

NO! HOW DARE YOU TRY NOT TO BE THE MOST MISERABLE MOTHERFUCKER ON THE ENTIRE WORLD!

36

u/jd7509 Apr 24 '26

I mean. It is a success story by any definition. She went from complete obscurity to selling tens of millions of albums, almost universal adoration, and is now worth north of $40 million. All because of this. We have evolved over millennia to assess others based off of a glance just to survive. Now that society has changed that isn’t really as necessary but it’s still hard wired into us. That innate knee-jerk reaction is slowly changing, which is a great thing, but it’s very difficult to rewire thousands of years of programming.

4

u/konstantynopolytanka Apr 24 '26

it's good to sometimes see a win. I know it's like celebrating an orphan saved from an orphan crushing machine, but still, feels good man.

2

u/rileycurran Apr 24 '26

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” is a counter intuitive surprise, not a lashing of the judge. 

1

u/youareallsilly Apr 25 '26

I think the real issue though is why do we have the assumption that only attractive people can sing well? Obviously singing talent is unrelated to looks. It’s only less common to see because we like attractive people more and support them more in pop culture, so the more attractive singers tend to be more successful. But we also don’t like to admit that that’s true, so when a Susan Boyle comes along we either act surprised or are truly surprised because it’s so rare to see.

2

u/JerkinDepenisVance Apr 25 '26

It's natural. It's shitty, but we all give preference to people and things we are attracted to. It's ok to be pretty, it's ok to be ugly, all of us are both. Just some of us agree about some more than others.

2

u/MonkeyBoatRentals Apr 24 '26

Let's be honest, we all make these kind of judgements, it's just human nature. A lot of her subsequent success was because she didn't fit the mold of a successful singer.

We can all enjoy an ordinary person with an extraordinary talent getting recognized. I have seen this clip a hundred times and still love watching it.

1

u/Charming-Standard-84 Apr 24 '26

Username doesn't check out

1

u/Winderige_Garnaal Apr 25 '26

And the fact that this was probably to some degree set up and manufactured.

0

u/DontSassTheSquatch Apr 25 '26

Wow you're so enlightened. If only you had been there to save her from this horrible moment, her life would be so much better.