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Susan Boyle ‘admitted to Priory’
Police called to hotel under Mental Health Act after her shock defeat in TV talent show
The Scottish singer Susan Boyle was admitted to the Priory Clinic on Sunday after police were called to her London hotel to assess her under the Mental Health Act. She was reported to have been "acting strangely" since her shock defeat in the ITV show Britain's Got Talent by the dance group Diversity.
A spokesman for the Priory in Southgate north London said: "We can neither confirm nor deny the reports."
The trouble apparently began moments after the public vote came through on Saturday night and she realised she had lost to Diversity. She is said to have run amok backstage, shouting: "I hate this show".
An unnamed source at her central London hotel told the Sun that she was acting strangely the following day. "She didn't look well - she looked lost, not all there."
However, Boyle's brother, Gerry told the BBC that his sister was "fine" but feeling homesick and "showing signs of anxiety". He played down reports of a breakdown adding, she is "surrounded by people she doesn't really know".
The 48-year-old church volunteer from West Lothian had been the clear favourite to win the contest ever since she first sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables and the judges had to apologise for making fun of her dowdy appearance - which got her dubbed "the hairy angel" by the tabloids.
For Saturday's final she reprised her performance of I Dreamed a Dream and everything looked on course for the fairytale ending that had long been predicted. But after reports of her losing her cool with members of the public during the run-up to Saturday's final, it appears she suffered a public backlash.
One of the judges, the former Mirror editor Piers Morgan, said that her shock defeat was the best thing that could have happened to her. He told the Daily Mail: "I think the pressure of actually winning and living up to all that expectation would have just carried on the mayhem for her.
"I'm only sorry that the extraordinary tidal wave of publicity she attracted meant so many people got either bored or irritated by Boyle-mania and decided not to vote for her."
Despite coming second, Boyle could still earn millions from television, advertising and record deals if she decides to pursue a singing career. ·
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I wish her no harm and hope she is soon well. However, anyone who knowingly appears on Chavtime TV must expect to be judged by chavs, be that Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Whatsername or the Great British unwashed.
Is the public the best judge of talent? If by talent you mean "ability to appeal to the many" I think perhaps yes. Just as I am the world's leading authority on what I like; way out ahead of art critics, wine tasters and other Emperors' taylors.
These shows, for even in Jamaica we have a version, put too much pressure on the contestents. Here was a woman who had lived a perfectly ordinary life, suddenly at Paris Hilton level.
Whoever dreamed up the idea that the general public is the best judge of talent? It is populist rubbish. Certainly they have a hand in someone becoming famous by buying their recordings or books or whatever. But as judges of talent? How do you compare the talents of a singer with an instrumentalist or a dancer. They are not comparable and can only be judged by their peers or their teachers.
As a singer, Susan Boyle won hands down. The winning dance team also won. Anyone who got into the finals won. But for someone as talented as Susan to be sneered at, belittled and provoked by the grossly untalented media and general public is beyond contempt.
Piers is right about it being the best thing that she did not walk off with the top award - for her own sake. She will recover her sense of balance and wellbeing and go on to delight the world with more of her singing as Paul Potts has done. She has only lost a few thousand pounds, not her voice. And given her mature years I thought from the beginning that she presented herself well. She certainly brought Simon up short when she first appeared on stage and started to sing. That was a joy to behold. Susan reminded me a little of my mother who was also a very talented singer who won prizes and was greatly loved for her singing.
BGT was a freak show. Probably every contestant who made the final forty had something wrong with them, nerves or hardship or bullying or pushy parent or deceased wife. Susan has been, and will be, exploited and her mental state is fragile. Or is all this even more spin to promote sales. I can see the headlines now: "Scottish mental patient's record reaches Number One in Forty Eight countries."