From TMZ:
Who knew that taking a mentally fragile 48-year-old woman on a singing tour would create problems?
Susan Boyle — you may remember her as a singer, or someone who very, very recently almost had an entire mental breakdown — pulled out of tonight’s “Britain’s Got Talent” tour performance in Manchester. Officials are saying that Boyle’s absence is nothing more that a “one off rest day.”
Susan, who opened the BGT UK tour to a standing ovation in Birmingham Friday night, has performed 2 concerts–each consisting of a two-song set.
And she needs a “one off rest day”?
Should this woman, who obviously has some emotional issues, be touring at all?
Maybe she’s just holding out for more money.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/showbiz/359312/Susan-Boyle-set-to-earn-pound8k-a-minute-at-private-gigs-Britains-Got-Talent-2009.html
I truly don’t know whether to be concerned or bored.
Can’t see how this is much like Katharine.
Will, real interesting article. She won’t be able to get these high-paid private gigs if she doesn’t show up for booked events.
I hope that someone helps her thru all this. And I feel bad for the people with tickets to the concert that she skipped.
I think you are right Patty H – the reason she never succeeded beyond a certain point are due to deeper issues. To be exhausted after singing 2 songs one night is bizarre to say the least and if she has already become a diva, say goodbye to what could have been a good living.
From that article..
Give me a break! They already know she’s going to miss at least three shows because of her stress? Could you imagine if this woman had to endure being an Idol contestant and the insanity they’re put through? Someone like this will never, ever handle a full fledged singing career and everything that comes along with it. If she can’t handle a 26 date tour where she sings TWO songs how will she handle a solo tour? And for her to be paid this kind of money her people better make damn sure she’s not going to be pulling last minute cancellations due to stress.
It’s a shame, but she is so far out of her element that they should just call the whole thing off and save everyone a lot of trouble.
I know it will never happen, but it would be nice if TPTB could learn something from this- like the need for more psychological testing for their hamsters.
It’s sad, I feel bad for her. I’m sure she’s doing the best she can to cope with the sudden fame and huge changes in her life. I hope she takes some time to recover and that tptb back off and let her do that.
This would not be breaking a contract.
When she ended up in the hospital, Simon said he destroyed any contracts and that Susan wouldn’t be doing the tour.
Susan wanted to try, she didn’t want to disappoint her fans.
So, it was set that she’d do SOME of the shows.
I think that was a mistake, she’s not ready. But I do think she’s trying her best.
BGT really did a number on her. It was too much for anyone.
It’s exactly like McPhee, who was too fragile to even show up until the tour was well underway. if you recall, McPhee was sent for in-patient treatment at a psychiatratric/rehab facility between the auditions and the start of Idol that year. She was a mess.
Wow, I’m honestly surprised by all the sympathy for her. You guys are a lot more forgiving than I am.
Oh the horrible stress of having to perform a 2 song set! Give me a break. She seems like a total bitch to me who isn’t willing to do even the bare minimum that she signed on for.
I’m more sympathetic to ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ than I am to her.
Back to obscurity, then, and deservedly so. Hard work is a huge part of success and at this stage of the game she should be willing to work overtime if she wants to me more than just a flash in the pan (Daughtry worked hard when Kat Mcphee didn’t, as a perfect example, and look where they both are now)
The woman suffered oxygen deprivation at birth and has been diagnosed with learning disabilities. Perhaps we should egg Special Olympic contestants who drop out next? If anyone deserves scorn it the the producers.
It amazes me how fast people are to pile on the insults and “diva” status on these people without bothering to find out anything about them.
Daniel, you are a tough egg. Really.
She went through an awful lot, and for some reason, stuck it out to the end with that ridiculous show.
They gave her NO HELP for 2 months.
Then when she finally packed to leave, they gave her a pep talk to stay.
She was like a zombie by the finals, obviously very sick.
They used her just like they use all the contestants that we’re supposed to laugh at.
This time they went too far. I doubt the poor woman will ever be even able to get her life back, as miserable as it was.
She’s obviously not cut out for this kind of work. So, whatever appearances on this tour she can actually complete, will probably be the last we hear of her.
If it’s true the Simon released her from her contractual tour obligation, then the dates she is showing up for are probably being paid on a per appearance basis.
It’s unfortunate for the ticket buyers who expected to see her. But, this is kind of an unforseen circumstance. Hopefully, the tour promoters will be as up front with people as possible.
I just want to point out that people with learning disabilities are not necessarily unable to handle job related stress. The anxiety and emotional breakdowns she’s experiencing right now could be related to her previous difficulties, or they could be another issue entirely.
There’s probably plenty of blame to go around. Obviously, BGT didn’t pick up her mental health issues in their screening process. And of course, they milked her “shocking” audition for all that it was worth. But – that show is shown in one country. It was a whole host of other people who created the huge media blitz, watched that video 80 bazillion times and made her a household name across the world.
This kind of thing can happen when you put yourself on these reality shows. People have to know by now that the crazy they’re going to experience is going to radically change their lives. She went on the show and she did all of the interviews. She’s complicit in this situation too. Sure, she’s been exploited, but she sure helped that expoitation along.
I just think there’s a lot of gray here. I’m not sure either side is all right or all wrong.
This is nothing like what happened to Kat. Kat missed part of the tour on Doctor’s orders because of strained vocal chords after the strain of 4 months of the competition and her commitments as the runner-up. She never missed a performance after the doctors cleared her. Plus she finished half the tour with a broken foot shoe got back stage at one show.
Secondly, Kat was never “sent” to a psychiatric/rehab facility. That is completely false. She voluntarily went to a facility to finally deal with her eating disorder prior to the semi-finals. And she was very successful there. She has never looked better or healthier.
I hope Susan gets the help she needs. It was a very difficult life changing experience for her.
Yes, she had severely damaged vocal chords. Why she felt the need to pretend to have bronchitis never ceases to make me shake my head.
Everything that has happened with Susan Boyle since right before the BGT finale is why I refused to jump on her bandwagon. As soon as the first stories came out about her life I knew she probably had emotional problems that would surface. There’s a reason some people live very solitary existences with only pets for comfort: it is all they can handle. Now she’s a trainwreck, regardless of whether or not she sings pretty versions of popular songs.
Hahahahahhaha :laugh_tb: :mrgreen_wp:
I agree Spencer. But this is not “job related stress” in the form that any of us deal with. People without underlying emotional issues crack. And someone who has her types of cerebral injuries at birth are more likely to lack the emotional maturity to deal with the situation.
If Brittney Spears and other like her can be forgiven and have careers, then Susan should be too.
She’s not an alcoholic or drug addict, her brain injury was unavoidable, and certainly something she had no control over.
If she can get over the effects of the last few months, and has a good support team, there’s no reason she should be denied the chance at a career too.
Just what I was going to point out, Starrlight. According to assessments I’ve read – the poor woman suffered some cognitive impairment. It takes her longer to process information (and not everything registers). The show should have assigned people to help her from the get go. She should have buffers between her and the media. You think American Paparazzi are intrusive? In Brittan they’re downright vicious. Paps have actually baited her – calling her the kinds of manes she obviously heard every day in the schoolyard – just to get a rise. She’s been trotted out like a show pony – and when she needed help – she was told to STFU and cope. All that bull about money? Those decisions are made by management. God but I feel sorry for her. She has a marvelous talent à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ a beautiful voice that could entertain millions of people à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬’ making her happy in the process (for once). She just needs special handling (and a little compassion). Consider it like handicapped parking, or a wheelchair ramp. Whatever happened to simple human decency?
What’s most annoying to me about Britain’s Got Talent is how they’re always shamelessly promoting themselves as this feel-good venue, where people get a shot who never got a shot, where they have these heart-wrenching backstories, and, oh, shouldn’t we all feel good about ourselves for fighting off our prejudices to admire and vote for these people!
By promoting themselves like that it seems to me they then have a duty to offer support to the people they wind up with. But what they do instead is encourage everybody — and themselves, especially — to engage in an orgy of self-congratulation over our/their compassion and open-mindedness. And then leave the people to be chewed up and spat out by the fame machine.
It’s really sickening. I don’t like their wet-eyed phony-compassion-laced shows anyway — ditto for the American version — but when you see an outcome like this it becomes even more disgusting. I hope to heck someone steps up and gives this poor woman the support she needs. It probably wouldn’t be that difficult, if they’d just do it.
Honestly, I don’t think she had anything like the experience and savvy, and maybe the brain power, to know what she was getting into. All she knew was that this show might finally give her a bit of her dream — after she’d been essentially confined to her home with her mom all her life as her siblings went off to their own lives, because her mental and emotional vulnerabilities made her the most suitable for staying around the house.
Talk about “the tigers come at night with their voices soft as thunder, and they tear your hope apart and turn your dream to shame.” … How prescient that song is now.
She was too much of an innocent to understand what she was getting into, and the producers were definitely soft-voiced tigers. Too bad family and friends didn’t warn her off this, but I guess it’s very hard to say to somebody with a talent that they can’t try for their dreams. And they woudln’t have to say it if the show actually practiced some of the humanity that they want us to believe they represent.
Well, my apologies if I’m misunderstanding. I see nothing that indicates she is mentally handicapped. Lots of people have problem births. Lots of people have learning disorders. Lots of people work hard and can keep their word regardless of this. It is not an excuse for ‘pulling a diva’. The woman knowingly signed on for the show, knowing what she was getting into (unless she really is mentally handicapped, in which case BGT should be held liable, but again there is no evidence I’ve ever seen to suggest she’s mentally unfit).
If she plain old decided this isn’t the career for her and doesn’t want anything to do with it, that’s fine, that’s her choice. But the natural consequence will be that she will fade back to ignominy and not have much of a career, which is also fine. It’s her life, I support her right to choose to do, or not do, whatever she wants. But again I have no sympathy for her. As far as I can tell she knew what she was signing up for.
Also just want to point out that I used to work with the mentally handicapped, the ones I worked with are some of the most innocent, gentle, and generous-hearted people alive. I have never met one that was lazy though, or ego-driven. Seems like Susan could learn a thing or two. Just saying.