8 posts and columns on I Dreamed a Dream

Voices

Nothing Says Holidays Like Queen Elizabeth Getting Her Groove On

in News on December 16, 2009 at 5:00 am PT

Holiday “e-cards” have become popular in recent years, first as a way to cut back on paper clutter but increasingly as an outlet for ever-more creative messages. Some venture firms have gotten in on the act, as we’ve seen recently with Onset Ventures’ witty annual card that spoof everything from social networking to “American Idol” and, this year, holiday gift catalogs.

Voices

Susan Boyle Album Tops Amazon Pre-Orders

in News on October 21, 2009 at 2:30 pm PT

A month ahead of its release, Susan Boyle’s album has more advance orders on Amazon.com than any CD in the retailer’s history, it said. The Sony album, titled “I Dreamed a Dream,” goes on sale on Nov. 23. Ms. Boyle sang the song by the same name on “Britain’s Got Talent,” and the video of her unexpectedly strong performance made her a world-wide phenomenon after it landed on video-sharing sites like YouTube.

While Fanboys Breathlessly Await Steve Jobs's Apple iTab, They Should Probably Thank Bill Gates Too

in News on October 5, 2009 at 8:10 am PT

Way back in the fall of 2001, BoomTown attended a keynote speech at the now-defunct Comdex show in Las Vegas, where Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates continued to bang the drum for one of his long-running obsessions: The tablet computer. It is an obsession he has never given up. So it is ironic that all the hype has suddenly and firmly coalesced around the particulars of the tablet that Apple has developed–a device being spearheaded by CEO Steve Jobs and likely to arrive in the coming months.
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United Might Break Guitars and the Funky Wedding Video Has Buzz, But Will It All Have a Susan Boyle Ending?

in News on August 6, 2009 at 8:30 am PT

Oh, who doesn’t just love, love, love the two latest viral videos to hit the Web–“United Breaks Guitars” and the joyful wedding dance of Minnesotans Jill and Kevin? Combined, they have more than 20 million views on YouTube. While that’s all well and good, like a lot of these kinds of viral phenoms, neither is likely to make much money and become more than watercooler wonders.
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Boyle Then Was as Good as Boyle Today: God Bless the Queen of Online Viral Video

in News on May 4, 2009 at 5:08 pm PT

Here’s more extraordinary video of Susan Boyle, the Scottish singing sensation. The unknown 47-year-old appears in new online videos unearthed by Scotland’s Daily Record and shot at a 1984 competition at the Fir Park Social Club in Motherwell. She is 22 in these videos, but sings “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “The Way We Were” just as well as she did recently on “Britain’s Got Talent.” How much does BoomTown love viral video? Much, in this case.
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The Last Susan Boyle Post, I Promise–But It Turns Out She Can Cry a Digital River

in News on April 20, 2009 at 2:00 pm PT

The Internet sensation that is Susan Boyle just keeps getting better. The Daily Record in Scotland uncovered a 10-year-old recording that the 47-year-old woman made for a charity CD. Singing the classic blues ballad, “Cry Me a River,” Boyle more than proves she has the range of the truly gifted artist (not to mention emotional depths that seem endless here) she displayed recently on a British television talent show, which has turned her into a viral Web celebrity.
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Boylemania, Part II: TV to Internet to TV to Internet…

in News on April 17, 2009 at 6:00 am PT

Susan Boyle’s sensational television singing performance jumped from that medium to become a viral Internet hit, fueling more television that is, of course, headed to the Internet again. Who says old and new media can’t work together? The YouTube official version of the original TV performance is now at 15.6 million views.
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Good Luck Trying to Share the Angelic Voice of Susan Boyle

in News on April 16, 2009 at 4:00 am PT

Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle is indeed all she is cracked up to be. But her virality on the Internet is not, even though she has–in fact–become an Internet sensation. Though the performance of the unemployed 47-year-old woman–dressed in a dowdy frock, wowing the judges on the television show, “Britain’s Got Talent” with an astonishing rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables”–has been viewed many millions of times now and growing, it’s not easy to move it around on the Web. It should be.
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