By now you all have probably heard and heard of Susan Boyle. In case you haven’t yet, take a few minutes to watch this, you won’t regret it.

Susan Boyle sings “I Dreamed a Dream”

It’s a heartwarming story and a heartbreaking performance. The 47 year old Susan Boyle, never married, never kissed, who showed promise as a singer as early as 12, unemployed charity worker, spent years caring after her ailing mother until her death in 2007. Her mother loved Susan’s singing and hoped and wish for her to try out for Britain’s Got Talent, a show she was a fan of. Susan eventually made her appearance about a week ago. She showed up with her frizzy hair, her somewhat overweight build, looking nothing like a superstar, and dared to compare herself to Elaine Page. She was met with laughter, eye rolls and scorn. Then she opened her mouth and sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables, and the audience leapt to their feet in applause. They were shocked that such an amazing voice could come from a woman who looked like that. She brought tears to their eyes and earned a pass to the next round of the competition. She’s been on numerous news programs, has an appearance lined up on Oprah in the future, and is supposedly working on a record deal. It’s a beautiful story of a beautiful soul defying expectations to live a dream, but there’s so much more to it.

The first stories to appear focused on the preconceptions of the audience, about how they judged her based on her appearance, and how she shocked the world with her voice. What does it say about our society that we are surprised to hear that magnificent voice come from that body? In the world of American Idol, Brittany Spears and the like, have we really come to expect all great talents (not just singing) to be young and “beautiful” (don’t think for a second that Susan is ugly, it’s absolutely untrue, beauty comes in many forms and I’m not just talking about inner beauty, she is a beautiful)? Do we really expect someone who looks like Susan to sound like a mule? What if she had? Would that have confirmed the suspicions about her? What if she had been a man, would the audience still have been as shocked to hear a voice that good out of a man they considered unattractive? They’re interesting questions that I’m not sure there are answers to. Her performance should make us look at our expectations and preconceptions, and the importance of appearance in our world.

The next issue that was raised by the blogsphere and the haters was her ability. There were doubts about the quality of her voice, and her performance skills. As a (very) amateur singer, I can say that her voice is something special. It has great strength and range, was always on tune, clear, and beautiful. But that all pales in comparison to her performance. She OWNED that song. It’s a song I’ve seen performed live 3 or 4 times on Broadway and on tours, and countless times on CD. It has never brought me to tears like her performance did. Her phrasing was absolutely perfect, and she injected such emotion into the song that I was overwhelmed. Even some of those who were impressed with her still wondered whether she was a one trick pony. Maybe this was the only song she could sing like that, or it only had that much power because of its personal meaning to her. Then this was discovered.

As magical as her performance on BGT was, nothing prepared me for this. She recorded a song for a charity CD in her hometown back in 1999, at the age of 37. There is more soul in this rendition of “Cry Me A River” than can be expected from even some of the most extraordinary singers. It’s smooth and sexy and heartbreaking and everything “Cry Me A River” should be. (She also sang a few bars of “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic on Larry King Live.)

Susan’s story has possibly become even bigger here in America, where her story is the American Dream. She’s the underdog and she’s Rocky and everything we love to root for. People are already using her name in sports (“Maybe our team will pull a Susan Boyle and win tonight”). People can’t wait to hear what she’ll sing on the show next, and the odds makers have her as the favorite to win it all. (I would love to hear her sing something sweet and beautiful like “Beauty and the Beast” but she needs something that could show off her pipes more than that.) What’s being forgotten alarmingly quickly is how much of a gift this woman is. In the rush to get her a makeover and to get her record deal underway (I’ll buy everything she records), we’re already looking past her performance. All context aside, it is one of the most amazing performances I’ve seen, and touched me deeper than I could have ever thought possible from a Youtube video. God works in wonderful and mysterious ways, and Susan Boyle is a blessing on our times. In a day of economic hardships, wars, hatred and violence, Susan shows us how painfully beautiful the world can be and how much beauty there is all around us each and every day. I will remember this introduction of Susan Boyle until the day that I day (hopefully after many decades of music from her). Moments like this are few and far between, both for Susan and for the rest of us, and it would be a shame to let it pass, or to trivialize it in the face of what might be coming. It will always give me hope, bring me joy, and help me to love the world and the people in it.