Sierra Viewpoints

Susan Boyle's first album has just become the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history, selling 410,000 copies in the first week and is the second fastest selling debut album in US chart history, having sold 701,000 copies in the USA. Not only is her album second only to Snoop Dogg's debut (which occurred 16 years ago), it is, therefore, the fastest selling debut album by a female artist ever in the USA and the UK. She has sold more in the first week than the debuts by Kelly Clarkson (the first American Idol winner) and more than Leona Lewis, who was by far the most successful UK music reality TV winner. So why is Susan Boyle's album selling so well?

I guess that's the million dollar question. Certainly, it was a brilliant choice of debut single for her to sing the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses", which was also arranged superbly and its lyrics seem to be perfect for Miss Boyle. However, I suspect the reason she has easily outsold every other singer currently in the charts is simply the fact that she is the epitome of everyone' dream—well, perhaps not everyone's but certainly many people's. Leona Lewis and Kelly Clarkson, for example, are young, attractive with incredible vocal abilities and had everything going for them. Susan Boyle, on the other hand, is middle-aged, frumpy and has learning difficulties (something still apparent when interviewed after her recent performance of Wild Horses on The X Factor). If a frumpy middle-aged woman from a remote Scottish village can suddenly achieve her dreams, then surely the rest of us can too.

Of course, the fact Susan Boyle can really sing helps. However, she's no Leona Lewis or Kelly Clarkson vocally but she is the embodiment of the belief that your dreams really can true. As she sung so famously, she dreamed a dream in days gone by, her dreams have come true and perhaps, just perhaps, ours can too.

Good for you Susan.

Just who does Mariah Carey think she is? She is so full of herself that she thinks she can make the most ridiculous of demands and every seems to just fawn over her all the time. She is so not all she thinks she is.

When she recently opened a new shopping mall in London, she had demanded 20 white kittens and 100 white doves, but was turned down. There are several other examples of her ridiculous demands. She needs to get real and someone close to her needs to tell her that she's just a singer and not queen of the universe.

When she appeared on X-Factor this weekend, she wasn't even singing live. She certainly has a beautiful voice but has ruined it with her choice of songs and her diva lifestyle. Give me Susan Boyle and day!