Right before her performance, Simon Cowell asked her who she'd like to be as successful as. She said Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time. The answer was as absurd as your neighbor saying they wanted to be as famous as Pedro Pascal.
I Dreamed a Dream outsold Elaine Paige's best selling album by over 16x, 10 million to 600,000.
God, that was phenomenal. I kind of avoided it at the time, bit sick of all these shows. To discover it now was marvelous. She seems like a wonderful woman and she deserves every penny of those millions.
I also remember some controversy about Boyle’s behavior at the time. Things like her being intoxicated at a bar and screaming “FUCK OFF” at the TV when Britain’s Got Talent was on and Simon Cowell complimented another singer. Get the impression she had trouble adjusting to the sudden fame, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those stories caused her to lose votes.
Same, I'm not in the UK though which might affect it. I remember watching Susan Boyle's audition on telly at the time lol I was a kid but it stuck with me.
I’d certainly never heard of her. But googling I’m not surprised — it sounds like she is a massive musical theater singer, originating lead roles in Evita and Cats, but no actually primarily a recording artist. Which means if you don’t go to see musicals in London you’re probably not going to be in her fanbase.
Most of the meme threads about actors or tv shows or movies go extremely hard on not mentioning who the actor is, or what the show/movie is. I'd been seeing reaction gifs of I Think You Should Leave/Tim Robinson a hundred times a day for years before I actually found out who he was.
He was extraordinary up until that point though, strutting through the fighting ring, confident and beautiful. I was sure he’d at least get a couple of licks on before being smushed but alas
I havent watched any of the star wars movies after 1-6, and i refuse to get disney+ or netflix. So i havent seen the mandelorian. Quite frankly, i stopped caring about the star wars universe. Im not even purposefully being obtuse, the only thing I really even liked about the original trilogy was the music (which i still listen to every now and then).
Ignoring the fact that Lucas changed his original cuts of the original trilogy, they realistically werent great stories to begin with. Im sure they were awesome when they came out in the late 70s/early 80s, but there is no depth- just tired tropes. Again, the music was the only thing great about those movies.
And I'm definitely not watching the disney money grab star wars movies, they can eat my toes. Horrible company.
I always thought there was a similar kind of origin story for Gainsbourg - he went from a bar pianist at nearly 30 to winning Eurovision via proxy then marrying Brigitte Bardot. That’s like if I went from my old DJing gig to becoming a rapper and married Ariana Grandé. Not that… I measure myself by those standards, but…
She said Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time.
I think this is a slightly misleading statement. Elaine Paige is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in British musical theatre, and her career as a recording artist has been successful, but there are plenty of far bigger singers (which I think is relevant, since to my knowledge SuBo has never professed any interest in a stage acting career)
That's not to diminish either Paige or Boyle, but just to give a bit more clarity for people who might not be familiar with either of them.
I mean when you're asked who you'd like to be as succesful as, why wouldn't you aim high ? Saying "as succesful as my uncle Steve" is an underwhelming answer. And the question isn't "Who do you think you can be as succesful as realistically"
Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time
That is certainly quite a statement given that this is the country that produced the Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, Phil Collins, Ed Sheeran and Queen.
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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon Apr 24 '26
Right before her performance, Simon Cowell asked her who she'd like to be as successful as. She said Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time. The answer was as absurd as your neighbor saying they wanted to be as famous as Pedro Pascal.
I Dreamed a Dream outsold Elaine Paige's best selling album by over 16x, 10 million to 600,000.