Britain's Got Talent

Photo: Daily Express

Forget Leona Lewis. Forget Girls Aloud. Forget Sugababes. They are the past.

Meet Susan Boyle (pictured above), Britain's Got Talent's newest singing sensation. Oh, but you would say, "C'mon, you're pulling my legs." I know why you said that. You're not alone. Even the mighty judges and the audience of the talent show thought the same.

Here's an account of what happened last weekend:

"Last Saturday, viewers saw Boyle, with double chin, unkempt hair, frumpy appearance and eccentric demeanour, step onto the talent show stage and proclaim her dream of being a professional singer.

The judges rolled their eyes and the audience pulled incredulous faces. Onlookers, on set and at home, were rubbing their hands at the prospect of another hopeless, deluded loser being crushed by a withering Simon Cowell insult.

Then she opened her mouth and sang I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables.

Her voice confounded all expectations - the judges' eyes bulged, the crowd went wild and Boyle became an instant star."

And what a hit she became in YouTube with more than 26 million views (and growing fast). In fact, she has become a world sensation because of YouTube. She's a big hit in America, too.

But why has she become such a phenomenon? Here's what a celebrity magazine writer has to say:

"In our pop-minded culture so slavishly obsessed with packaging - the right face, the right clothes, the right attitudes, the right Facebook posts - the unpackaged artistic power of the unstyled, un-hip, un-kissed Ms Boyle let me feel, for the duration of one blazing showstopping ballad, the meaning of human grace.

She pierced my defences. She reordered the measure of beauty. And I had no idea until tears sprang how desperately I need that corrective."

You have to watch the audition to see for yourself why she is music's newest sensation. And to think that she has not won the competition yet. Amazing!

If you want to know the rest about Susan's story read more at BBC News.