Boyle wows fans at tour opener
Susan Boyle will be gearing up for the second 'Britain’s Got Talent' live tour gig today after wowing fans at the opening show.
Following a day of doubts over whether the troubled Scottish singer would perform, she belted out hits 'I Dreamed A Dream', from the hit musical 'Les Miserables', and 'Memory', from Cats, to rapturous applause at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena last night.
Today she will perform in two shows at the Sheffield Hallam FM Arena, the first one starting at 2.30pm.
During last night’s performance, the 48-year-old church volunteer, who shot to fame in the reality television talent contest, blew a kiss to her adoring fans as they screamed and whistled.
She was introduced to the stage by ITV2’s 'Britain’s Got More Talent' presenter Stephen Mulhern, who described Boyle as being “famous all over the world”, adding: “She’s so famous even her pet cat Pebbles is famous.”
Looking slightly more subdued than normal, Boyle smiled and waved as she took her bow with the rest of the performers at the end of the show.
Fans said they were delighted the singer from Blackburn, West Lothian, had performed.
Cathy Blair, 50, from Hereford, said: “It’s really great that she made it to the show. She was fantastic.”
Anne Moylan, from Walsall, West Midlands, who brought her daughter and two sons to see the gig, said: “I’m really glad that she felt well enough to perform.
“I don’t think it was as good as when we saw her first in the audition.”
When asked if she thought the pressure of the television programme and subsequent fame had affected her performance, she replied: “Possibly, but I don’t want to take anything away from her. She was really good.”
Boyle was admitted to the Priory after coming second in the TV contest last month. She left the London clinic after five days.
Since then there have been various reports saying Boyle has not been showing up for the tour’s rehearsals.
Last night’s show was opened by the popular DJ Talent, aka Anthony Ghosh, whose rapping drew huge applause from the 5,000-strong audience.
He was followed by 'Britain’s Got Talent' 2009 winners Diversity, a street dance troupe from Essex, who also attracted a huge response from the crowd.
The 10-piece street dance troupe, consisting of three groups of brothers and their friends aged from 12 to 25 years old, stormed the final last month with their routine of slick street dance moves.
Father and son duo, Greek-Cypriot Demetrios and Michalakis aka Stavros Flatley, wowed the crowd with their comical Irish dancing, but one of the biggest cheers of the night went to last year’s winner George Sampson.
He performed with dance group Flawless before revealing his new solo dance act to his adoring fans.
Also performing was young singer Shaheen Jafargholi, 10-year-old Hollie Steel, grandfather and granddaughter duo 2 Grand, 11-year-old dancer Aidan Davis, from Birmingham, saxophonist Julian Smith, also from Birmingham, and singing rugby player Shaun Smith, from Lichfield, Staffordshire.
