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Susan Boyle - I Dreamed A Dream

Without any styling, choreography or much in the way of sanity, Susan Boyle made the world's jaws drop with her flawless performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Misérables during her audition on Britain's Got Talent. It was a moment so special, so momentous that when it was posted on YouTube, it went viral and was viewed as many as 3 million times within the first 72 hours.

With instant fame like that, the real proof of her stardom is to be found on this, her debut album of pop classics, traditional standards and the odd new song. The first single and opening track is a spine-chilling cover of the haunting Rolling Stones song "Wild Horses". It might seem an odd choice for Boyle's full-bodied voice – but there is an innocence in her tone that sweetens the song for her wide and varied audience.

The song that launched her to fame follows, and nothing will ever quite match the surprise and immediacy of her initial audition performance of "I Dreamed a Dream", but there are such big moments in the song that you can't help but stand up and applaud her performance, as you probably did in front of your PC when you first saw her unleash her voice.

On record, Boyle's voice isn’t the most majestic or commanding – she is better suited to the gentle tones of hymnals "How Great Thou Art" and "Amazing Grace", but that doesn’t preclude her from giving some Madonna a go as well. On "You'll See" (from the Material Girl's mid-90s drama-ballad phase) keeps it simple and sophisticated – as she does on The Monkees' "Daydream Believer".

In the Britain's Got Talent finale, SuBo (her cool nickname) didn’t actually win the competition. No one really cared though (have you ever heard of Diversity?) but she nonetheless became the voice and image of the reality-obsessed TV era. And as a species, we're prone to fickleness – so there's no telling where Boyle will rate on our relevance scale come the next flavour of the season. I Dreamed A Dreamed is at least a worthwhile memento of how an extraordinary moment gave birth to a distinctive talent.

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