Paul Potts: “Susan Boyle should be allowed to change anything she wants”

May 23, 2009

2007 Britain’s Got Talent winner Paul Potts is speaking up for Susan Boyle and thinks she should be allowed to change whatever suits her fancy. He of the non-cookie cutter looks – chubby, wearing an ill-fitting suit and non-Pepsodent smile – was also given the dismissive eye rolls and snickers by the audience and the opera? yeah, right treatment by the judges. But he got up there and rocked with Puccini’s Nessun Dorma like Ms Boyle did with I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables and the rest is history.

Instant hit on YouTube and fans everywhere though not on as massive a scale as Susan Boyle. Who has? His first CD One Chance sold millions of copies and topped the charts, he’s sung all over the world, made lots of money, got married and lives where he wants.

Presently, he’s doing the rounds promoting his second album, Passione, sung in Italian. He will also be performing on the semifinal night of Britain’s Got Talent. He admits to being more than a tad apprehensive about returning to where his journey began.Can’t blame him. Full circle with Simon at both ends.

Potts got the same pressure as Ms Boyle about his appearance, especially his teeth, which he said was agonizingly painful getting fixed- he felt everything despite more than a dozen injections, But it was something he had to do medically and wanted to do for confidence sake.

POTTS’ thoughts per ROBIN TURNER, WalesOnline :

I don’t think Susan Boyle should be forced to change anything, but I don’t think she should be forced to remain as she was either. Because at the end of the day you have to live with yourself for much longer than the attention that can be on you.

I was under a similar sort of pressure Susan is finding herself under at the moment. I’ve had people say ‘Well, why didn’t you leave your teeth as they were?’ Well, I think I’d have felt like a bit of a freak show if I’d have kept my teeth the way they were. Even though I was happy I couldn’t show it as much as I wanted to because I was ashamed of my teeth. Also there were health reasons. My bottom teeth were being damaged by my upper teeth so something had to be done about it.

Ms Boyle says she’s happy being who she is: “What’s wrong with Susan Boyle?” And who knows what she had always wanted to do for herself? She had been depressed and had even stopped singing after her mom died and just did a little “tidying up as any woman would have done.”

POTTS: I think Susan demonstrates that anything can happen. There’s always something about somebody you don’t know that can surprise you.

And both she and Potts are prime examples. Here’s hoping there won’t have to be another one.

Updated: Susan Boyle posts/videos (5-23)
Paul Potts video