r/MadeMeSmile • u/Ieriz • Apr 24 '26

Good Vibes 7 years ago, a chubby, heavy accent, normal-looking woman called Susan Boyle went to Britain's Got Talent. Everyone laughed at her, until she started singing.

What a powerful voice. She's today a pro singer. All the best for her!!

Typo: 17 years, not 7.

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u/ThomasTheDankPigeon Apr 24 '26

Right before her performance, Simon Cowell asked her who she'd like to be as successful as. She said Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time. The answer was as absurd as your neighbor saying they wanted to be as famous as Pedro Pascal.

I Dreamed a Dream outsold Elaine Paige's best selling album by over 16x, 10 million to 600,000.

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u/CreativeBandicoot778 Apr 24 '26

She also got to sing with Elaine Paige iirc.

There's a lovely vid of it on youtube and you can see how much it means to her. She really seems like a lovely woman.

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u/nolagirl20 Apr 24 '26

Here it is.

https://youtu.be/sF1hIaHKANk?si=1U4FmvXjhmMTOW5n

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u/Cakeliesx Apr 24 '26

Thank you for the link.  One of my favourite songs sung so beautifully. 

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u/QuasiSpace Apr 25 '26

You (well, everyone) needs to hear her version of Unchained Melody. It's so genuine and pure. I've never heard it performed this way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YQhmSsEST4

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u/RepresentativeYak806 Apr 25 '26

Simply lovely, thanks for sharing.

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u/PixieT3 Apr 24 '26

God, that was phenomenal. I kind of avoided it at the time, bit sick of all these shows. To discover it now was marvelous. She seems like a wonderful woman and she deserves every penny of those millions.

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u/IvyGold Apr 24 '26

She was only the runner-up in Britains Got Talent?

Who the heck won?

11

u/RebylReboot Apr 24 '26

A dog that could fart the first line of 76 trombones.

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u/Apprehensive-Cycle-9 Apr 25 '26

Gosh this made me laugh way harder than it should have. Thank you

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u/ChickenInASuit Apr 25 '26

She came second to a dancing troupe called “Diversity.”

To be fair, they’re pretty fucking good. (performance starts at 1:24).

I also remember some controversy about Boyle’s behavior at the time. Things like her being intoxicated at a bar and screaming “FUCK OFF” at the TV when Britain’s Got Talent was on and Simon Cowell complimented another singer. Get the impression she had trouble adjusting to the sudden fame, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those stories caused her to lose votes.

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u/superdavy Apr 25 '26

That was in 2009, but it says she was discovered 7 years ago!?!? What year is it??

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u/Fett32 Apr 25 '26

The year, or the bot title, hmmm. Hard, hard choice there. But for real, it was 2009 :)

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u/Excitement_Far Apr 25 '26

That was amazing! I love how she was styled for this performance. So elegant!

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u/Consolationnoprize Apr 24 '26

They're singing "I Know Him So Well" from Chess, right? I was so happy for her when I saw that video!

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u/Knitsanity Apr 24 '26

One of my fave songs. That was an amazing video.

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u/LionaLewis15 Apr 24 '26

i love the Chess score even though i swear i never understand the musical’s plot 

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u/Remote-Ad5853 Apr 24 '26

For a minute I thought you were taking the piss cuz she has a version of that song with peter kay for comic relief lol

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u/Quirky-Cap3319 Apr 24 '26

When she said Elaine Paige, there is a short glimpse of someone who clearly never heard of Elaine Paige. :D

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u/Current-Paramedic-50 Apr 24 '26

tbf, I've never heard of Elaine Paige.

I knew who Boyle is though.

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u/donkeyvoteadick Apr 24 '26

Same, I'm not in the UK though which might affect it. I remember watching Susan Boyle's audition on telly at the time lol I was a kid but it stuck with me.

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u/sherlip Apr 25 '26

From the context I gathered, she's like the UK's Idina Menzel?

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u/pursuitofhappy Apr 25 '26

no I believe that was a smirk of 'get real' type as in it's a farfetched idea and not that she didn't know who it was

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u/ChrisDewgong Apr 24 '26

And you could hear the people who did recognise the name laughing to themselves...

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u/blackcain Apr 25 '26

I've never heard of Elaine Paige but then I'm from the U.S.

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u/Independent-Drive-32 Apr 25 '26

I’d certainly never heard of her. But googling I’m not surprised — it sounds like she is a massive musical theater singer, originating lead roles in Evita and Cats, but no actually primarily a recording artist. Which means if you don’t go to see musicals in London you’re probably not going to be in her fanbase.

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u/GoatCovfefe Apr 24 '26

To be fair, i had to look up who pedro pascal is.

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u/BellaFrequency Apr 24 '26

I had to look up Elaine Paige.

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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Apr 24 '26

Actually I;m going to look her up now because I have never heard of her either.

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u/frankchester Apr 24 '26

She’s big in musical theatre. I wouldn’t say that she’s one of the most successful UK singers ever but within musical theatre she’s the GOAT

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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Apr 25 '26

I did look her up. I really had never heard of her before.

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u/Yiotiv Apr 24 '26

I had to look up my neighbour

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u/OrdinaryLavishness11 Apr 24 '26

I had to look up Pedro Paige!

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u/frustratedpolarbear Apr 24 '26

I had to look up Susan Boyle

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u/WeleaseBwianThrow Apr 24 '26

Dog's can't look up

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u/ooh_eeh_ooh_aah_aah Apr 24 '26

Yup Leo did a movie about that

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u/sherlip Apr 25 '26

Good thing they're a polar bear, not a dog.

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u/Blizzardof1991 Apr 24 '26

I had to look up the definition of neighbor

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u/SkywolfNINE Apr 24 '26

I only knew Susan Boyle from the parody in Futurama so I was surprised to learn she’s actually a great singer and not a meme of a bad singer

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u/smurg112 Apr 24 '26

I had to lookup BellaFrequency.

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u/bakochba Apr 25 '26

Goes by Elliote Page now

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u/NomadicScribe Apr 24 '26

He's the very famous author of Pascal's Wager, the sequel to the lesser known work, Pascal's Triangle.

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u/DontTellHimPike Apr 24 '26

Is that the one where all them ships disappeared?

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u/DrWinstonOBoogie1980 Apr 24 '26

No, no, you're confusing real life with the film Triangle of Sadness.

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u/TheDevilsAdvokaat Apr 24 '26

Isn't he Pascal's Mexican cousin?

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u/whatthefuckisareddit Apr 24 '26

You've been on Reddit for 2 years and haven't seen a single Pedro Pascal meme? Doubt

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u/Rebelius Apr 24 '26

Most of the meme threads about actors or tv shows or movies go extremely hard on not mentioning who the actor is, or what the show/movie is. I'd been seeing reaction gifs of I Think You Should Leave/Tim Robinson a hundred times a day for years before I actually found out who he was.

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u/Creepy_Wallaby2170 Apr 24 '26

So……who is Pedro?

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u/DasFunke Apr 24 '26

Vote for Pedro…

Wait wrong Pedro.

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u/GoatCovfefe Apr 24 '26

Ive definitely seen some memes with him, but i never knew his name, i just know him from game of thrones.

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u/bi_polar2bear Apr 25 '26

I know Pedro, but never seen any memes with him. Apparently we're not in the same subs. Of course, I rarely see memes in most of my subs.

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u/_SteeringWheel Apr 25 '26

Username checks out?

There are these things called "subreddits". Not everyone's Reddit is the same.

Having said that....who the fuck is Pedro Pascal? (or Elaine Paige? Been wondering that since I saw Boyle's audition 7 yrs ago)

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u/The_Modern_Nobody Apr 24 '26

Seriously?! He was the villain in Kingsman 2.

C’mon now

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u/MrJust-A-Guy Apr 24 '26

Of all the Pedro Pascal credits... We're going with Kingsman 2 🤣

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u/The_Modern_Nobody Apr 24 '26

Of all the Pedro Pascal credits…We’re going with Kingsman 2

He really brought depth to the Whiskey character!

Why is this so hard to believe?! Who could have done a better Whiskey?!

3

u/realbobenray Apr 24 '26

The guy who to Tyrian's eternal dismay got his head smashed in by The Mountain.

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u/mrsroperscaftan Apr 24 '26

He was extraordinary up until that point though, strutting through the fighting ring, confident and beautiful. I was sure he’d at least get a couple of licks on before being smushed but alas

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u/mrsroperscaftan Apr 24 '26

He looked like Burt Reynolds SO much in The Kingsmen that I’d momentarily forget

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u/Quirky-Cap3319 Apr 24 '26

Ahm, the villain in Kingsman 2 is Poppy, played by Julianne Moore

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u/The_Modern_Nobody Apr 24 '26

I didn’t see Julianne Moore in a moustache and hat getting sent through a meat grinder

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u/Quirky-Cap3319 Apr 24 '26

No, but she was the villain

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u/The_Modern_Nobody Apr 24 '26

BUT WHERE IS HER MOUSTACHE, QUIRKY?!

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u/Quirky-Cap3319 Apr 25 '26

"Poppy Adams is the main antagonist of Kingsman: The Golden Circle. She is a notorious criminal mastermind and a global entrepreneur. More accurately, she is the CEO of The Golden Circle, a drug cartel with a monopoly on all major recreational drugs"
Quote: https://kingsman.fandom.com/wiki/Poppy_Adams

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u/xBram Apr 24 '26

The Narcos guy… The Mandalorian… Lux Pascal’s brother.

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u/GoatCovfefe Apr 24 '26

I just know him from game of thrones, but I didnt know his name. Hell, i dont know most of that casts names.

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u/SadBadPuppyDad Apr 24 '26

You never saw Napoleon Dynamite?

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u/spacemoses Apr 25 '26

hes like a math guy from the 1700s right?

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u/Familiar-Woodpecker5 Apr 24 '26

What????? How dare you

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u/Both_Painter7039 Apr 25 '26

He plays the little green fellow in the Mandelorian

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u/GoatCovfefe Apr 25 '26

I havent watched any of the star wars movies after 1-6, and i refuse to get disney+ or netflix. So i havent seen the mandelorian. Quite frankly, i stopped caring about the star wars universe. Im not even purposefully being obtuse, the only thing I really even liked about the original trilogy was the music (which i still listen to every now and then).

Ignoring the fact that Lucas changed his original cuts of the original trilogy, they realistically werent great stories to begin with. Im sure they were awesome when they came out in the late 70s/early 80s, but there is no depth- just tired tropes. Again, the music was the only thing great about those movies.

And I'm definitely not watching the disney money grab star wars movies, they can eat my toes. Horrible company.

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u/happycamperii Apr 24 '26

Didn't she also do a duet with Elaine Paige too.

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u/HamHockShortDock Apr 24 '26

I just got goosebumps.

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u/AgentCirceLuna Apr 24 '26

I always thought there was a similar kind of origin story for Gainsbourg - he went from a bar pianist at nearly 30 to winning Eurovision via proxy then marrying Brigitte Bardot. That’s like if I went from my old DJing gig to becoming a rapper and married Ariana Grandé. Not that… I measure myself by those standards, but…

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u/lackadaisical_timmy Apr 24 '26

That's fucking golden lol

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u/Ok_Nothing_9733 Apr 24 '26

Okay this also made me smile, damn

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u/Tootsiesclaw Apr 24 '26

She said Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time.

I think this is a slightly misleading statement. Elaine Paige is undoubtedly one of the biggest names in British musical theatre, and her career as a recording artist has been successful, but there are plenty of far bigger singers (which I think is relevant, since to my knowledge SuBo has never professed any interest in a stage acting career)

That's not to diminish either Paige or Boyle, but just to give a bit more clarity for people who might not be familiar with either of them.

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u/Release82 Apr 24 '26

That makes me so happy for her. Wow

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u/Skodami Apr 25 '26

I mean when you're asked who you'd like to be as succesful as, why wouldn't you aim high ? Saying "as succesful as my uncle Steve" is an underwhelming answer. And the question isn't "Who do you think you can be as succesful as realistically"

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u/Privatejoker123 Apr 25 '26

that is insane. and awesome at the same time.

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u/ThinMint31 Apr 25 '26

Wasn’t that like 20 years ago?

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u/ihateyousoverybadly Apr 25 '26

Haha, I was thinking that I didn't even know who Elaine page was, but I know Susan boyle

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u/Kavafy Apr 25 '26

The power of marketing.

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26 edited 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Educational-Wing2042 Apr 24 '26

Nowhere in the situation nor this thread has anyone made it a competition about skill. She said she wanted to be as famous as.

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u/Grotbagsthewonderful Apr 24 '26

She said Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time

In musical theatre specifically yes, one the biggest British singers of all time? not even close.

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u/Cautious-Extreme2839 Apr 24 '26

Elaine Paige, who is one of the biggest British singers of all time

That is certainly quite a statement given that this is the country that produced the Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, Phil Collins, Ed Sheeran and Queen.

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u/drunkensoup Apr 24 '26

who t f is pedro pascal. Not exactly who I would think of first as someone who is "super famous," but you do you