Susan Boyle, Hammersmith Apollo, review
Five years after rendering Simon Cowell speechless on Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle had the audience on its feet during her first nationwide tour, says Rachel Ward
1:21PM BST 07 Apr 2014
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Susan Boyle’s first nationwide tour has been a long time coming. It is five years since she silenced Simon Cowell on Britain’s Got Talent with her incredible audition piece, I Dreamed a Dream. Since then she’s sold almost 20 million albums worldwide, sung for the Queen, performed for the Pope and even duetted with her hero Donny Osmond.
So it was no surprise to see queues snaking around a sold-out Hammersmith Apollo for the London leg of this 19-date tour – despite the rain. Not even wild horses, it seemed, could keep the fans away.
As outlined in an ITV documentary last year, however, getting here has been a struggle for the Scottish singer, who in 2012 was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Her crippling anxiety and dread of performing live has prevented her from taking to the stage to tour thus far.
But Boyle is a woman of determination, especially where her singing is concerned. She appeared in a midnight blue, sequinned gown, as a replay of that very first audition reminded us where her journey began. “What’s the dream?” a Simon Cowell voice-over bellowed. “To be a professional singer,” Boyle mimed back. And with that she opened the show with Irene Cara’s Out Here On My Own. Given Boyle’s story, its lyrics – Sometimes I wonder where I’ve been / Who I am, do I fit in? – seemed touchingly apt.
Boyle’s fragility is arguably part of her appeal, but it was her subtly emotive voice that chimed with her audience. The front row were rarely in their seats as she worked through a series of standards and show tunes, backed by a live band. At one point, the whole auditorium, including a group of nuns appearing to recreate a scene from the film Sister Act, rose to dance along to River Deep, Mountain High, a duet which she sung with regular Strictly Come Dancing vocalist Lance Ellington. The innocence of songs such as Over the Rainbow and Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love, meanwhile, best showcased her soaring vocals.
Attempts at jazzier numbers, including That Ole Devil Called Love, were less successful. There were moments, too, when Boyle looked uncertain, and stilted jokes about her cat Pebbles and over-rehearsed links between performances felt mechanical.
She ended the two-hour show with her signature tune, Les Miserables' centrepiece I Dreamed a Dream: the song that started it all. It sounded as stirring as ever. Boyle came second in the 2009 final of Britain’s Got Talent, but as her loving fans will always attest, the winner doesn’t always take it all.
Touring until April 17; buy tickets from Telegraph Tickets
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/live-music-reviews/10749734/Susan-Boyle-Hammersmith-Apollo-review.html
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