More than 130 million people have now seen Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent performance on YouTube, making her the undoubted online queen of modern talent show TV.
But, as Britain’s Got Talent competes with American Idol and similar talent shows across the world for domination of the online audience, can anyone really compete with Boyle to be crowned winner of the global talent contest?
Boyle’s closet rivals are the 2007 Britain’s Got Talent finalists Connie Talbot and Paul Potts.
The audition performance of the then six-year-old runner-up has now racked up more than 70.5 million views, while winner Potts’ performance of Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot has collected just over 65.5 million views.
This biggest challenge to Boyle’s dominance from outside Britain’s Got Talent comes from Australian Idol. The remarkable human beatbox Joel Tuerner, who competed in the show back in 2003, has now been viewed nearly 23 million times on YouTube.
This, despite the fact that Tuerner never actually made it passed the audition because his performance was deemed unsuitable for the competition.
Tuerner also went on to win the Beatboxing World Championship in 2005, a crown he retains to this day.
The most viewed performance from American Idol on YouTube is still Kelly Clarkson’s appearance on the show in 2002.
Despite the length of time the performance has been online and Clarkson’s phenomenal success since becoming the first winner of American Idol, the clip of her performing A Moment Like This has collected only just over ten million views, putting her behind other more recent Britain’s Got Talent contestants such as Andrew Johnston (12 million views) and Hollie Steel (11.7 million views).
The latter, in fact, has only been online for two weeks. The only X Factor representative to make it past the ten million views mark is the 2006 winner Leona Lewis.
The multi-platinum-selling artist and three time Grammy Award nominee is, in fact, the last of the talent show TV contestants to make it past this total.
Outside the English-speaking world, Sweden’s Zara Larrson, winner of Talang in 2008, has managed to attract nearly five million YouTube views with her interpretation of The Greatest Love Of All.
Top 10 talent show virals
1. Britain’s got Talent 2009
Susan Boyle: I Dreamed a Dream
130,757,435 views
2. Britain’s got Talent 2007
Connie Talbot: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
70,632,457 views
3. Britain’s got Talent 2007
Paul Potts: Nessun Dorma
65,534,186 views
4. Australian Idol 2003
Joel Tuerner: Human Beatbox
27,722,760 views
5. Britain’s got Talent 2008
Andrew Johnston: Pie Jesu
12,995,805 views
6. Britain’s Got Talent 2009
Hollie Steel: I Could Have Danced All Night
11,717,101 views
7. American Idol 2002
Kelly Clarkson: A Moment Like This
10,141,837 views
8. The X-Factor (UK) 2006
Leona Lewis: I will Always Love You
10,065,388 views
9. Talang 2008
Zara Larsson: Greatest Love of All
4,806,913 views
10. American Idol 2005
Carrie Underwood: I cant make you love me
6,447,618 views
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