Simon Cowell may have mocked Susan Boyle before her now-famous Britain’s Got Talent audition, but 17 years on, he’s now thanking her for the show’s ongoing success.
The talent show judge, 66, spoke about Scottish singer Boyle in a new interview, saying that she’s done “more good for our show than probably any other contestant”.
Boyle, 65, auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent in 2009, but was initially sniggered at by judges Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan after saying that she hoped to be as successful as Elaine Paige.
In what is now arguably the most memorable BGT moment, Boyle blew them away with a moving rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the 1980 musical Les Misérables. While she ultimately lost out on winning BGT to dance group Diversity in the final, Boyle went on to sell over 10 million copies of her debut album – making it one of the best-selling albums of the century.
After admitting last month that his reaction to Boyle walking on stage was “awful”, Cowell was asked by Extra about his comments, with him adding: “Susan is a real character and I think out of the corner of my eye, I must have seen her messing around in the wings or something because I thought she was a comedian, a stand-up comedian.
“There is this famous awful look between me and Piers. That’s what we were like on the day. I wanted to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover.”
He continued: “I absolutely adore her. She did more good for our show than probably any other contestant.”
In May, Cowell told the podcast Tales from the Celebrity Trenches that the judges were “even worse” to Boyle than what was caught on camera that day.
“I mean, that look Piers gives me,” he said. “I think of all the looks I’ve ever remembered, that might be the worst. And I was just as bad. We all were. And then, you know, thank God for her, it all worked out well. And, of course, I had the ability to cut all that stuff out, but it was a bit of a wakeup call. Which is, you can’t judge a book by its cover.”
After finding success on the ITV show, Boyle performed for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant and the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She suffered a minor stroke in 2023 but returned to the stage just months later to perform again on Britain’s Got Talent.
She went viral last year after Marty Supreme star Timothée Chalamet named Boyle as one of his five favourite Brits. In response, the singer shared a video of herself singing happy birthday to the actor while wearing Marty Supreme merch.
Just last month, she revealed a dramatic new look – showing off a blonde bob and teasing her “new era”, which ultimately turned out to be a collaboration with Cornetto ice cream.
BGT recently wrapped its 19th series, with Saturday’s final seeing Jeremy Clarkson’s Hawkstone Farmers Choir win the £250,000 cash prize and a slot at the Royal Variety Performance.
