Oh yes she can sing alright. The touching song was a good choice as well. But her voice does sound a little aged though. Not sure how it may appeal to the younger crowd.

The original producer of Les Mis said that vocally. it was one of the best performances of the song he had ever heard. You are right to leave the music to the pros.

Susan Boyle is fantastic! That was the only time I actually LOVED listening to an audition on any of the "reality-based" talent shows (and I'm a fan of most of them). "Britian's Got Talent" - is certainly an understatement in this case.

Have to say that this lady became more and more beautiful as she sang - her voice is compelling and unbelievable.

It's good that Mr. Lim qualified his comments by stating he does not consider himself to be a music expert. His comment that he found Ms. Boyle's to be "not that amazing" was incorrect. It is amazing, and here's why I say that:

It's true that the shock value this performance provides comes from the initial expectations raised by Susan Boyle's physical appearance. But when you cut through all the superficial stuff, and just listen, you hear a performer literally out-sing her own idol, Elaine Paige, whose performance of this same song can be found on You Tube.

Elaine Paige is a polished stage performer. When she sings she deliberately uses gestures and body movements to carefully convey a portion of the emotion the composer intends the musicality of the voice to convey. If you watch Ms. Paige, you will notice that she is a lovely person to look at; she has all the physical qualities and characteristics you'd expect to see in a "star." AND, here and there in her performance you hear her quiet her voice for a beat or two, valuable musical beats which could have easily been used to wring more pure emotional response out of the melody. Instead, she chooses to move her body or make some gesture to do the work her voice is capable of doing.

From what I've read, Ms. Boyle has experience performing as a church vocalist. This type of choral singing discourages extraneous movements of the body and arms, and consequently focuses attention on the sound being produced. From my perspective, the tones Ms. Boyle's voice produces are richer and fuller than the performance offered by Ms. Paige, which sounded somewhat thin in comparison.

In addition, for me, the presence with which Susan Boyle took the stage, in front of a good size studio audience and the television cameras which broadcast her performance throughout her entire nation, and just laid it all out there for everyone to hear and to judge spoke volumes. She commanded the attention of everyone who listened. And the sweeping arm gestures she did make made sense in the moment. They only added to the value of the performance in a way one would expect to have from only highly experienced performers who are sure of themselves and their instrument.

There was but a single section of three notes that I heard which were slightly off pitch (perhaps 1/8 of a tone.) My impression was that she became distracted for just a moment, but she quickly resolved the problem and got back on track. Other than that, the performance remained spot-on regarding rhythm and pitch to a very remarkable degree that did amaze me.

(If you watch American Idol this season, you'll hear the black girl Lil Rounds frequently sing notes that are flat by a full 1/2 tone or more and the problem repeats throughout her entire performance.)

In short, the last time I heard anything this moving was when I heard Eva Cassidy's rendition of "Over the Rainbow."

Well done, Ms. Boyle.

I see you are a sports correspondent. Being a person who works in stage productions, like Cameron Mackintosh and Patti Lupone who by the way have heard Susan sing, plus more than 20 million youtube viewers around the world, Susan Boyle is an amzing singer and now an inspiration for a lot of people. You are right, you are no music expert. Stick to writing about sports if I may suggest.