14 DAY TRIAL // When she first set foot on the stage at the Britain’s Got Talent auditions, Susan Boyle boldly said her purpose was that of becoming a singer like her idol Elaine Paige. Months later, the two have not only met but also sang together, and Susan is the highest selling artist of the past year and the biggest selling newcomer in the history of music. That, unfortunately, is not winning her any points with Paige herself, as the Telegraph informs.
Paige first met Susan in July 2009, and then the two sang a duet together for the former’s original “I Know Him So Well” during the shooting of the ITV one-hour special “I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story.” Both were extremely pleased at having had the chance to share the stage with such a talented performer but it could very well be that one of them, Elaine Paige in particular, was not as excited as she led fans to believe. In a recent interview cited by the Telegraph, she compares Susan to a “virus” that spread thanks to YouTube and who, because of it, has no longevity in the industry.
“I don’t particularly feel any pride for her – I’m sure she is proud of what she has done,” Paige says when asked whether she’s proud of Susan Boyle’s many accomplishments to date. These include, as we also noted on several occasions, selling 8 million copies of her debut album, “I Dreamed a Dream,” in just a couple of months and reigning all the music charts in most territories for several consecutive weeks. In the context of an industry that is selling less and less records by the month, this is no easy feat, one might as well add.
“It’s all about turning someone into an immediate celebrity at the expense of longevity and working hard and experience. Susan Boyle is doing terribly well considering she literally came to the attention of the world overnight with the advent of YouTube. She was like a virus really that spread across the world in a nanosecond. She is a girl with no experience of anything to do with theatrics, the music business, or art in any way. She has done terribly well to be a major star overnight with YouTube,” Mrs. Paige explains.
In the same interview, Paige also says that for her, a singer and actress with 40 years of experience, longevity means hard work and knowledge, as well as sustained efforts to remain in the spotlight. She, unlike Susan Boyle, did not have YouTube to propel herself to international stardom, so she had to work really hard for her fame, she goes on to say.
Susan Boyle duets with Elaine Paige on her ITV television special