Boyled in oil...

Well, the painful spectacle of Susan Boyle is finally over. She came second on Britain's Got Talent. All I can say is thank God it's over!

Unlike several friends and acquaintances (some of whom admittedly got teary eyed at her trilling tones), I never quite saw the magic in Ms. Boyle. Sure, her singing was very nice. It was NOT spectacular. Her talent wasn't different or better than many singers of that genre of music. She wasn't going to be playing the beautiful ingenue lead in Phantom of the Opera any time soon.

So what was it Susan Boyle had that so captivated the public around the world?

She made the superior feel even more superior. They could pretend to back the nag with the sway back to win the race in the hopes they would look noble. She made the shy and those who have a low sense of self-esteem feel better, because, well, Susan was one of them. And look how the audience loves her...so there must be hope for every other pub singer or garage band strummer locked away in a small town.

The bottom line is that she really wasn't a saleable commodity in the long run. Coming second is no small potatoes on Britain's Got Talent or on American Idol for that matter. On American Idol number two often goes on to bigger and better things than the winner. But you have to have a persona and a talent that has staying power and not just be a media spectacle for a few weeks.

Will Ms. Boyle be a household word six months or a year down the road? I doubt it.

Firstly, her style of music does not appeal to the downloading iTunes age group. In other words, the young. Not many older folks still buy CDs... so after the dust cleared Susan Boyle was ultimately not very marketable. Just who was going to buy her CDs or download her songs to their iPods? Very few in the long run....and it is the long run that counts.

And we all know, whether is it Simon Cowell or any other music producer, they don't just want raw talent, they want a marketability factor. Something or someone they can sell. Susan just doesn't have that. She has quirkiness mixed with the homespun. In this world of glam and glitz what Susan has doesn't make for eye-catching covers on weekly celeb magazines.

Her makeover (admittedly small that it was) came too soon after that first winning performance. It was as if the Susan we all came to know and love was not good enough in her own eyes or the eyes of Britain's Got Talent producers. So they tried to tart her up a tad. From a dowdy dress to a trendy pants outfit only made her suddenly seem false. Like she was cashing in on instant fame. If a sparkly old-lady dress and bushy eyebrows got her where she was...why was that no longer acceptable? Because dowdy is not marketable.

The "never been kissed" fable, to "she lives with her cat", to the "she sings in local pubs" stories all left me vaguely uncomfortable. Like "let's all feel sorry for Susan....poor dear, she doesn't have a life."

She does...and she will go back to it.

Boyle will have a year of being promoted and will probably end up singing in a few Euro variety shows. But my prediction is that she will disappear almost as quickly as she appeared.

The public is ever fickle...and while it feels good to back a dark horse, when that horse doesn't win we go on to greener pastures.

As for being shy and retiring...there are enough video clips of Boyle on YouTube to prove other wise. There is a video of her singing in a pub 20 years ago to a group of bored half tipsy Scots. There is a CD that she recorded for a charity event a decade or so ago as well. She is not the shy and retiring old maid she has been painted by the mass media. But it makes a good sob story.

She's been out there all along performing in front of her peers...But this was the first time she created a media frenzy for performing. It became apparent she couldn't handle the pressure of the media spotlight during this final week of the competition when she was put in seclusion lest she have a meltdown.

I don't blame Susan for any of this...I blame the media. They had a good laugh with it for awhile and now the story is over.

Let's all just let Susan go back to singing in the pub. I'm sure her cat will be glad to have her home.