In 1961 Susan Boyle entered the world in Blackburn, West Lothian, as an amateur Scottish vocalist who would later seize global attention through a single televised audition. During the opening round of the 2009 season of Britain’s Got Talent, the unemployed church volunteer startled the panel and viewers alike by delivering a commanding performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables, an effect amplified by her plainspoken “salt of the earth” manner and the narrative of her rural, unmarried life. She had already tested a professional path in 1999, laying down several demonstration recordings that revealed the depth and feeling in her voice, yet she set those ambitions aside to care for her aging mother. Within hours of the broadcast she had become both a viral online figure and a worldwide sensation.
Her first album, I Dreamed a Dream, appeared in 2009 and immediately claimed the top position on both the U.S. and U.K. charts while establishing a national record for first-week sales. The set finished the year as the second-highest-selling album in America and headed the charts across much of Europe. Boyle returned for the 2010 holiday season with the festive collection The Gift.
In 2011 she released Someone to Watch Over Me, produced by Steve Mac, whose track list mixed interpretations of “Both Sides Now” and “Unchained Melody” with more recent material such as Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” and Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence.” Twelve months later she offered the concept album Standing Ovation: Greatest Songs from the Stage, which included duets with Donny Osmond and Michael Crawford; the release became her first not to enter the U.K. charts at number one, instead debuting at number seven.
During 2013 Boyle turned again to seasonal repertoire, making her screen debut in the film The Christmas Candle and issuing the holiday album Home for Christmas in October, which earned gold status in the U.K. Almost a year afterward her sixth album, Hope, arrived and held the number-one position on the Billboard Top Inspirational Albums chart for 35 weeks. The 2016 release Wonderful World found her exploring an eclectic selection that featured Madonna’s “Like a Prayer,” Paul McCartney’s “Mull of Kintyre,” and a virtual duet with Nat King Cole on “When I Fall in Love.” In June 2019 she issued the greatest-hits compilation Ten.
