68 Facts About Susan Boyle

In 2011, Boyle made UK music history by becoming the first female artist to achieve three successive albums debut at No 1 in less than two years.

Susan Boyle subsequently released the studio albums Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs from the Stage, Home for Christmas, Hope, and A Wonderful World.

In 2019, Susan Boyle celebrated a career spanning ten years with a compilation album titled Ten together with a tour.

Susan Boyle's father, Patrick Boyle, was a miner and veteran of the Second World War who worked as a singer at the Bishop's Blaize; her mother Bridget was a shorthand typist.

Susan Boyle was raised thinking that she had been briefly deprived of oxygen during a difficult birth resulting in a learning disability.

Susan Boyle attended Edinburgh Acting School and took part in the Edinburgh Fringe.

Susan Boyle used all her savings to pay for a professionally cut demo, copies of which she later sent to record companies, radio talent competitions, local and national TV.

In 1999, Susan Boyle submitted a track for a charity CD to commemorate the Millennium produced at a West Lothian school.

Former coach O'Neil said Susan Boyle abandoned an audition for The X Factor because she believed people were being chosen for their looks.

Susan Boyle almost abandoned her plan to enter Britain's Got Talent, believing she was too old, but O'Neil persuaded her to audition nevertheless.

Susan Boyle said that she was motivated to seek a musical career to pay tribute to her mother.

When Susan Boyle first appeared on Britain's Got Talent at the city's Clyde Auditorium, she said that she aspired to become a professional singer "as successful as Elaine Paige".

Susan Boyle was "absolutely gobsmacked" by the strength of the reaction to her appearance.

Susan Boyle was one of 40 acts that were put through to the semi-finals.

Susan Boyle appeared last on the first semi-final on 24 May 2009, performing "Memory" from the musical Cats.

The day after the final, Susan Boyle was admitted to The Priory, a private psychiatric clinic in London.

Susan Boyle left the clinic three days after her admission and said she would participate in the BGT tour.

On 13 December 2009 she appeared in her own television special "I Dreamed a Dream: the Susan Boyle Story", featuring a duet with Elaine Paige.

Susan Boyle performed for Pope Benedict XVI on his tour of Britain in 2010.

In May 2010, Susan Boyle was voted by Time magazine as the seventh most influential person in the world.

Susan Boyle's original song "Who I Was Born To Be" was the theme song of anime film Welcome to the Space Show, which opened in Japan on 26 June 2010.

On 9 July 2010, Susan Boyle announced that her second album would be a Christmas album entitled The Gift.

Susan Boyle doesn't want to sing anything that hasn't happened to her or she can't relate to.

Susan Boyle performed on the second semi-final results show of the sixth season of America's Got Talent, which aired on 31 August 2011.

Susan Boyle released her fourth album Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs from the Stage in November 2012.

Susan Boyle reportedly took piano lessons as she planned on playing it for the album.

Susan Boyle made her first acting appearance as Eleanor Hopewell in The Christmas Candle.

Susan Boyle released her sixth album, Hope, in October 2014 in the US and in November 2014 in the UK.

Susan Boyle performing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in Glasgow, Scotland, performing "Mull of Kintyre" upon the arrival of the Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II.

In October 2016, Susan Boyle announced the release of her seventh studio album, A Wonderful World.

In September 2018, Susan Boyle was confirmed to be a contestant in America's Got Talent: The Champions.

Susan Boyle performed on 7 January 2019, singing "Wild Horses" from her 2009 debut album I Dreamed a Dream and received a golden buzzer from judge Mel B Susan Boyle progressed straight to the finals where she sang the song "I Dreamed a Dream" from her original audition back in 2009, but failed to finish in the top five.

On 21 August 2019, Susan Boyle performed on the results show for season 14 of America's Got Talent.

Susan Boyle's English-language cover of the Japanese folk song "Wings To Fly" was played during the release of the doves at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Opening Ceremony in 2021.

In March 2020, Susan Boyle embarked on her second tour, The Ten Tour, to promote the release of the compilation album.

Susan Boyle was scheduled to perform in Birmingham at the Birmingham Symphony Hall on 17 March 2020 was cancelled along with the remaining dates of The Ten Tour as a result of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.

Susan Boyle has kept a relatively low profile since the release of Ten in 2019, announcing in 2023 that she had suffered a stroke the previous year.

Websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have been crucial in facilitating Susan Boyle's rapid rise to fame.

Susan Boyle was interviewed via satellite on CBS's The Early Show, NBC's Today, FOX's America's Newsroom, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and via satellite on Larry King Live; she was portrayed in drag by Jay Leno, who joked that they were related through his mother's Scottish heritage.

At the invitation of NHK, a major Japanese broadcaster, Susan Boyle appeared as a guest singer for the 2009 edition of Kohaku Uta Gassen, an annual songfest on New Year's Eve in Tokyo, Japan.

Susan Boyle was introduced as the oen kashu by the MCs and appeared on the stage escorted by Takuya Kimura; she sang "I Dreamed a Dream".

Susan Boyle said she hated "having to sit watching people up there" who are actors.

However it was later decided that actress Elaine C Smith would portray her and that Boyle would join the cast of I Dreamed a Dream for a cameo appearance.

Susan Boyle said she was initially upset by the show, because she was "not used to it".

Susan Boyle called it "surreal", but later changed her mind and found it "clever and amusing".

Similarly, Entertainment Weekly said that Susan Boyle's performance was a victory for talent and artistry in a culture obsessed with physical attractiveness and presentation.

Several media sources have commented that Susan Boyle's success seemed to have particular resonance in the United States.

Susan Boyle's father died in the 1990s, and her eight siblings had left home.

Susan Boyle has never married, and she dedicated herself to caring for her ageing mother until her death in 2007 at the age of 91.

Susan Boyle is a practising Catholic and sang in the choir at her church in Blackburn.

Susan Boyle remains active as a volunteer at her church, visiting elderly members of the congregation in their homes.

Susan Boyle made her diagnosis public in a BBC interview in December 2013, and is epileptic.

In November 2014, it was reported that Susan Boyle was dating her first boyfriend, who was "around the same age" as she was.

Susan Boyle revealed the news during an appearance on 4 June 2023, after her performance on Britain's Got Talent.

On 26 January 2010, Susan Boyle sang together with other major artists on the charity recording "Everybody Hurts" put together by Simon Cowell for Haiti Relief for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

On 30 January 2010, Susan Boyle performed at the Indsamling Charity Gala, a telethon for Haiti and Africa held at the Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Susan Boyle has appeared on the three major UK charity telethons.

Susan Boyle has performed for BBC Children in Need telethon five times thus far: on 19 November 2010; on 18 November 2011, and on 16 November 2012.

On 10 November 2010, Susan Boyle performed at the Pride of Britain Awards in London.

On 19 March 2011 in Glasgow at the Scottish Variety Awards Susan Boyle performed; the money raised was donated to Cash for Kids Charity.

On 28 August 2013 Susan Boyle travelled down with the Lothian Special Olympics Team to the Special Olympics Great Britain National Summer games in Bath.

On 16 September 2010 Susan Boyle sang at the Papal Mass performed for Pope Benedict XVI in Glasgow at Bellahouston Park in front of a crowd of 65,000.

For three years Susan Boyle has launched the Wee Box campaign for the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund in Glasgow, on 9 March 2011, on 21 February 2012, and on 12 February 2013.

In May 2012 it was reported that Susan Boyle would become patron of the struggling Regal Theatre, Bathgate where she first performed "I Dreamed a Dream".

In January 2012, Susan Boyle donated a performance dress, which she had worn on America's Got Talent on 31 August 2011, to The Laura McPhee Memorial Fund UK Charity.

In July 2012 Susan Boyle donated a performance dress designed by Suzanne Neville, which she had worn at performances in Madrid on the Ana Rosa Show on 12 February 2010 and in Paris on Vivement Dimanche on 17 February 2010.

Also in June 2013 Susan Boyle donated for auction a performance dress which she had worn on The Oprah Show on 19 October 2010, with proceeds of the auction going to Metro Radio Newcastle England's Cash For Kids Campaign, with all funds raised going to disadvantaged kids across the region.

Susan Boyle released a music video 8 December 2013 featuring children from the FAST program singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" with Elvis Presley.