Today’s prompt from the Ultimate Blogging Challenge was to share some song lyrics that I live by. The song lyrics that I’m sharing come from “Les Miserables,” with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Alain Boublil, and book by both Schönberg and Boublil.
I always had many insecurities about my abilities and about my appearance. I had been called “stupid” and “ugly” for so long that I believed these insults were true. Therefore, anything I did wasn’t of high quality because I was “ugly” and “stupid,” right?
WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’
You don’t have to be beautiful to create art. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was never seen as handsome. He had a rare bone disorder and he was considered to be a dwarf. Nevertleless, he is still remembered for his artistic genius. Vincent Van Gogh was seen as unkempt and unattractive. Although he never sold a painting in his lifetime, he is now considered to be one of the greatest painters of all times. His paintings sell for millions.
You don’t have to be tall, svelte, and gorgeous to have a beautiful singing voice.
When Susan Boyle walked on stage in the 2009 Britian’s Got Talent auditions, the audience laughed because she didn’t fit the stereotype of beauty that a professional singer was expected to radiate. She looked like a middle aged woman, barely average in looks, maybe even a bit frumpy. The judges were no more impressed than the audience. They actually mocked her and her dreams.
And then, she started to sing “I Dreamed a Dream.” Within seconds, the audience was cheering and the judges’ jaws dropped. They did not expect someone who looked like Susan Boyle to sing like that. Then they started to cry. They were moved by her passion and by her absolutely gorgeous voice. She was someone who lived those words and who sang them with so much feeling.
I had a dream my life could be so different from this hell I’m living…
Is that the hell of being unrecognized, ignored, considered less than because of your looks, your height, your disability, or something else that causes people to judge you negatively before they bother to get to know you?
Who are we as people to judge others solely based on their outward appearance.
Maybe they have talents that we don’t want to see because we are that focused on their exterior.
And so, it was for Susan Boyle. When she walked on stage, she was laughed at because she didn’t fit the stereotype.
Her brilliant performance was more than great singing.
She shattered stereotypes.
She turned barriers into dust.
She has succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations, including her own.
Simon Cowell later said that the initial reaction that he and the other judges had of Susan Boyle was “awful, horrible, and disgusting.” He said, that yes, they had pre-judged her based on her appearance. His attitude changed dramatically as she sang. After the season of Britain’s Got Talent, when Susan Boyle came in second place, he maintained a friendship with her that continues to this day. He said that Susan Boyle “did more good for our show than probably any contestant.”
In 2019, Susan Boyle, who participated in “America’s Got Talent: Champions,” was given the golden buzzer that she always deserved with her gorgeous rendition of “Wild Horses.”
Susan Boyle is beautiful and resilient. She survived a stroke in 2022 and is back to singing.
She continues to dream her dream and to inspire so many.
Including me.
I too am a better person because of Susan Boyle.
I am no longer that person that other people called “stupid” and “ugly.”
I was never ugly.
People aren’t ugly.
If you look at people with love, they cease to be ugly. You see their talents and the beauty that lies beneath.
It is true of you.
And of me and of everyone.
We have so much potential. We just need to dig deep down and find it within us.
And to make our lives different from this hell we’re living.
